By Express News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Opposition and the state government on Thursday locked horns over the import of inferior quality raw cashew nuts from foreign countries by various state-run agencies. The assembly witnessed heated debate as Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan moved an adjournment motion seeking a discussion on around `20 crore loss the state incurred after the import of low-quality raw cashew nuts from Mozambique, a south-east African country. Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala said that the Cashew Board, the Kerala State Cashew Development Corporation limited and the Kerala State Cashew Workers Apex Industrial Co-operative Society (CAPEX) had become a symbol of inefficiency and corruption in the state. He said, even after the CAPEX managing director recorded his dissent note over the purchase of the low-quality cashew, the Board had gone ahead with the purchase resulting in a total loss of around Rs 20 crore. The opposition alleged the purchase benefitted middlemen and others associated with the board. The Board had been formed as a special purpose vehicle to save the sector, but it has become a tool for some to bleed public money, Chennithala said. He said that any purchase worth over `5 crore required e-tender, however, the cabinet had decided to directly purchase the raw cashew from Africa to salvage the industry. “But the officials purchased raw cashew kept in godowns for long from Mozambique during off season and import was again delayed by around two months. Is this the way the state government was salvaging the sector from its crisis,” asked Ramesh. The Chief Minister should launch a comprehensive vigilance investigation into the whole episode, he said. Chennithala said that despite the Chief Minister holding around six meetings to save the sector such a thing was happening. Minister for Fisheries and Cashew Industries, J Mercykutty Amma, refuted the allegations and said the government had purchased cashew nut as per the norms and guidelines. The state government could successfully intervene in the sector as part of reviving the sector. The state had imported raw cashew nuts from Tanzania at the rate of 1,815 dollars per ton in the beginning, which then progressively reduced to the current 1044 dollars per ton. Minister said that the Tanzanian government had approached the state government and informed they had a stock of over 2 lakh MT raw cashew nuts and an official level dialogue was underway. Further, when the UDF government was in power the total loss of the sector was `121 crore which was significantly brought down by the Left government, she said. However, the Opposition members created uproar over seeking direct reply to the allegation of importing low quality raw nuts from Mozambique and staged a walkout.

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