Thiruvananthapuram, April 8 -- A Congress MLA on Tuesday alleged that the LDF government engaged in corruption and willfully delayed the opening of the shutters of a spillway during the 2018 floods that resulted in widespread damage to Kuttanad, the state's rice bowl.

Mathew Kuzhalnadan, the MLA from Muvattupuzha in Ernakulam district, addressed a press conference in which he released an audio recording purportedly of K Krishnankutty, then electricity minister of the state, admitting to a colleague that corruption and involvement with a local sand mining contractor was the reason behind the delayed opening of the Thottapilly spillway which resulted in washing away of swathes of paddy fields and displacement of thousands of people from Ku...