Ratheesh Ravi
19 August 2025, 11:20 AM IST
It is alleged that ‘Plast Save’ received ₹50 lakh but transferred only ₹5 lakh to the Fisheries Department account associated with the coastal clean-up project.
A view from Kollam beach | Photo: Mathrubhumi
Kollam: An NGO based in London reportedly donated ₹5 lakh to the ‘Suchithwa Sagaram, Sundara Theeram’ (Clean Sea, Beautiful Beach) project, aimed at eliminating plastic from Kerala’s coasts and oceans. The donation is alleged to have come through the UK-based NGO ‘Plast Save’, which is said to be linked to Rajesh Krishna—named in a complaint that was recently leaked from the CPM politburo.
It is alleged that Fisheries Department got only ₹5 lakh out of the ₹50 lakh amount promised from ‘Plast Save’ for the coastal clean-up project.
According to available information, ₹5 lakh was used to pay wages to workers at the plastic shredding unit linked to the project. Then Fisheries minister J Mercykutty Amma confirmed that ₹5 lakh had been received from the London-based NGO.
The state government had not previously disclosed any details about receiving foreign assistance.
Speaking to Mathrubhumi, Mercykutty Amma said that no further promised aid materialised and that there had been no contact with the NGO since. She also mentioned that she had presented a paper on the ‘Suchithwa Sagaram’ project at the Indian Ocean Rim Association summit held in Indonesia, and that Rajesh Krishna had contacted her after seeing related international media coverage.
UK team spent hours in Kollam for project evaluation
A team from the UK visited Kollam on September 10, 2019 to explore potential collaboration with the ‘Suchithwa Sagaram’ project. They spent several hours in Neendakara, where the project activities were underway. Several individuals associated with the state government reportedly accompanied the team and photographs of the visit have since surfaced.
During their visit to the plastic shredding unit in Neendakara, a team member reportedly said, “Is this unit really this small? We could install one ten times larger with better facilities,” before departing.
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