Chandy dares Kerala CM to reveal lottery issue

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:  Kerala Opposition leader Oommen Chandy on Tuesday asked Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan to end his silence on recent controversies about his party's "acceptance of money" from a lottery distributor for its mouthpiece 'Deshabhimani'.
    
Going by the LDF Government's reluctance to act tough against tax evasions by big lottery agents, no one could be faulted for thinking that this was linked to the money
received for the party organ from an inter-state lottery tycoon, Chandy told a press meet here.
    
Achuthanandan was remaining silent on a host of issues he had raised when he was in opposition, including his once famous crusade over the lottery racket, the Congress leader said.
    
State Finance Minister Thomas Isaac's contention that the Centre was primarily responsible for the lottery rackets in the state and it was a ruse to deflect the real issues, he said.
    
The previous UDF government had tried its level best to ban sales of lotteries from other states but did not succeed due to court orders. However, Isaac's claim that UDF was responsible for outside lotteries to flourish was untrue, he said.
     
If the government was firm on curbing lotteries, it should have produced the Vigilance report on outside lotteries as vital document to support the claim for their ban in the
state, he added.