Kerala: Opposition stages walk-out from assembly over 'backdoor appointments'

The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) opposition staged a walk-out from Kerala Assembly on Tuesday over the alleged backdoor appointments by the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government.

Congress MLA Shafi Paramapil gave a notice to move an adjournment motion against the alleged backdoor appointments conducted by the government instead of recruiting candidates from the public service commission (PSC) rank list.

Raising the appointment issue, the Congres leader highlighted how a candidate, Anu, in Thiruvananthapuram committed suicide over the denial of a job. She had got her name in the PSC rank list.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan replied by terming the incident as "unfortunate". It is the government's policy to recruit maximum people from the PSC rank list. The government has given employment to 1,51,513 people registered through employment exchange in the last four years," he said.

Before staging the walkout, Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala alleged that maximum illegal appointments were carried out in the IT department, a portfolio handled by the Chief Minister himself.

He also questioned the status of the probe by an inquiry committee kept to look into the appointments made by former IT secretary M Sivasankar.

Assembly Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan denied 'leave for the motion' after the Chief Minister gave his explanations. In turn, the Opposition walked out in protest.