Acting as per PMLA: ED tells Kerala govt on 'crossing the line' allegation

The Enforcement Directorate on Saturday responded to the Kerala government's allegations on the central agency crossing the limits by seeking details of its flagship projects stating that it was only acting as per the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Replying to a notice issued by the Kerala Assembly's Committee on Privileges and Ethics, the ED said that since the issue involved suspected hawala transactions and money laundering, it was empowered to seek details regarding the government projects.

In his reply to the Kerala Legislative secretary, ED assistant director also said that the protections available for the Assembly were not applicable for the Life Mission, a campaign aimed at providing housing to the homeless in the state.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had earlier accused the Enforcement Directorate of crossing the limits as the central agency sought details of the government's flagship projects like Life Mission and Kerala Fibre Optic Network (KFON) that aims to provide free highspeed internet to 20 lakh economically weak families. He also said that the government would resist the move.

Close on the heels of that, CPM MLA James Mathew approached the Committee on Privileges and Ethics and the committee subsequently issued notice to the ED. Mathew's contention was that the Life Mission project was a policy decision announced in the Assembly to provide housing to all homeless on a time-bound basis and the ED intervention might affect the implementation of the project as a whole.

While Mathew said that it was on the ethics committee to decide the further course of action, legislative secretariat sources said that the committee could either close the matter based on ED's reply or initiate a personal hearing of ED officials and the petitioner.

The ED sought the details of the major projects as part of the probe against Kerala Chief Minister's former principal secretary M Sivasankar. Sivasankar was suspected to have received huge commissions from many projects. Vijayan had alleged that ED was putting key development projects under a cloud of suspicion as part of a ploy of the centre to sabotage Kerala's flagship development initiatives.