Steps on to unearth black money

The Centre itself had given list of persons with black money to the Supreme Court. But it cannot be disclosed now as there are agreements in this regard with foreign countries", Antony, who started his election campaign for the April 13 Kerala assembly polls said at a meet the press programme here.

The Centre was in the process of resolving the issue with foreign countries with which India had agreements, he said.

Antony said the UPA government would not protect any body involved in corruption cases. The government had decided to move sternly in the 2G specturam allocation scam case,he said.

The government had nothing to hide in the case and it was the Centre that asked Supreme Court to have investigation of the case by CBI under the supervision of the apex court, he said.

Controllig prices of essential commodities was an important agenda of the UPA government, he said.

He said Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan`s style of campaign was "unbecoming to the post he hold".

Achuthanandan was trying to create a smoke screen to hide the failure of his five-year rule by raking up issues such as "his fight against corruption and sex scandal offenders. If Achuthanandan is sincere in his words, let him come out with list of corruption cases initiated by his government and persons arrested in sex scandal cases", Antony said.

People would ensure a change of government in Kerala and West Bengal, he said, adding,"defeat in West Bengal and Kerala will enable the Left to come to terms with reality and learn a lesson`, he said.

Due to Achuthanandan`s "stubbornness", many development works and projects failed to take off or was delyed to start.

The five-year delay to start the multi-crore SmartCity IT project at Kochi was a best example for style of functioning of the LDF government, he said.

Antony said there was no confusion in the Congress over who should be the next Chief Minister if UDF came to power.

On the decision to field KPCC President Ramesh Chennithala and opposition leader Oommen Chandy in the polls, Antony said it was a decision taken after consultation among all leaders.

Referring to selection of candidates, Antony said this time more youngsters were given ticket.

On the allegation of a fomrer state Congress minister K K Ramachadran Master that many Congress candidates got ticket by paying money, Antony said it was an unfortunate statement.

`There is no payment seats in Congress`, he said.