Ker govt asks municipality to permit convention centre

With Kerala's efforts to make the state investor-friendly suffering a setback with the suicide of an NRI businessman following denial of permission to his convention centre, the Kerala government has stepped in and directed the local body to issue the clearance after rectifying the minor flaws.

Sajan Parayil, a native of Kannur district, and an NRI businessman, sought clearance to a convention centre he constructed by investing about Rs 15 crore. The municipality had cited various reasons like having not enough toilets and setting up of the waste treatment plant at an open area and had denied clearance. He ended his life on June 18 allegedly over this.

The incident snowballed into a major controversy and put the left-front in the defensive.

Last year also an NRI committed suicide in Kerala as a section of left-front activists objected to his workshop project by claiming that it was set up in a wetland. The state even witnessed stirs by NRI outfits criticising that the state was not favourable for investments.

In this backdrop, the Kerala local self-government department issued a fresh directive to the municipality asking it to give clearance to the convention centre as soon as the defects cited were rectified.