Pressure mounts to axe Dandapani

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM/KOCHI: While Chief Minister Oommen Chandy returned to the state from Delhi on Saturday happy with the outcome of his talks with the Prime Minister on the Mullaperiyar dispute, he was confronted with the controversy over Advocate-General K P Dandapani’s  stand in the High Court on the issue.As a demand to oust Dandapani from the post gained momentum cutting across political lines,   Chandy said he would look into the issue and take a decision.Chandy told reporters at the Thiruvananthapuram airport that he had apprised the PM about the concerns of the state and stressed the need for a new dam. “The Prime Minister listened to the concerns raised by Kerala and we are hopeful of a settlement,” he said.Revenue Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, who also holds charge of disaster management, said the AG’s remark that the dam’s safety was not related to the water level in it was a personal one and it was not the state government’s stand. “The stand of the state government is very clear on the issue. The govt usually makes its stand clear in the court in the written format. There was a mistake in the remark made by the AG in the court,” he said.UDF convener P P Thankachan said in Kochi that the Chief Minister will take an appropriate decision after consulting the leaders of the front.Cong parliamentary party chief whip T N Prathapan said that Dandapani was not fit to continue in the post of AG. “Dandapani as an AG should represent the govt. Rather than speaking for the state, the AG has spoken against the interest of the state,’’  he said  and added that if Dandapani did not resign, the govt should remove him.Congress spokesperson M M Hassan said that the govt should immediately take a decision whether such an AG was needed for the state.   “On such issues, the AG should have consulted the govt before making such remarks,” Hassan said.