A water theme and amusement park, the first such cooperative venture run by Kerala's [Images] ruling CPI(M), has been opened at the picturesque temple town of Parassinikadavu in Kannur district on Sunday.

In his inaugural address, party state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan said the setting up of the Rs 30-crore "Vismaya" amusement park, spread over 30 acres of land, indicated the growing influence of "cooperative movement" in Kerala. Kannur district occupies a prime place in the state having maximum number of cooperative units.

Chief Minister V S Achuthanadan, who was scheduled to have inaugurated the park, could not make it due to indisposition.

Opposing the "misinformation" campaign by certain quarters that setting up of the park would lead to depletion of ground water reserves in the area and result in ecological degradation, Vijayan said such "deliberate attempts" were aimed at misleading the public. In fact, the entire water requirement for the park is to be drawn from a rain water harvesting tank with capacity of 500 lakh litres, he said.

"The park is not going to use ground water and those who spearheaded the "misinformation campaign" should realise their mistakes," Vijayan said.

This sort of campaigns would create false apprehensions among the people and have a "negative" approach on developmental issues, he said.

The project is managed by CPI-M controlled Malabar Tourism Development Cooperative Society Ltd (MTDC).