Kerala assembly session: Bill to remove Governor from chancellor’s post likely to be tabled

Governor Arif Mohammad Khan and the government have clashed several times over appointments of vice-chancellors and teachers in state varsities

The winter session of the Kerala legislative assembly began on a noisy note on Monday as the Congress-led opposition raised the issue of alleged backdoor appointments in government departments, and stormed out of the house.

The Kerala legislative assembly in session. (ANI File Photo)

As soon as the house assembled, Congress member PC Vishnunadh moved an adjournment motion over the alleged matter, and claimed that government jobs were reserved only for CPI(M) cadres and supporters for the past six years, while thousands of people who cleared the state public service commission examinations were left in the lurch.

Rampant backdoor recruitments were taking place in many departments and even the reservation policy was ignored in the quest for filling posts with party cadres, he alleged, citing the recent letter controversy in the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation.

“The situation is grim in the state. Government jobs are only for party functionaries. Party offices have literally turned recruiting agencies, flouting all norms. Tax payers’ money is getting channelised to keep party cadres,” Vishnunadh said.

Last month, a letter purportedly written by Thiruvananthapuram mayor Arya Rajendran to party district secretary A Nagappan, seeking the party activists’ list for appointment in 295 temporary posts in the corporation, surfaced, triggering a major controversy. The mayor denied that she wrote such a letter and also raised a complaint with the police over the matter.

But the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party said she was forced to deny it after the letter was leaked to the media.

Local self-government minister MB Rajesh denied the charges raised by the Congress member and said that appointments made without catering to guidelines will be subject to vigilance scrutiny. He said the opposition was making a hue and cry over a ‘bogus letter’ which was not written by the mayor.

“The hiring for permanent posts is done through the PSC and other posts are filled through employment exchanges. There is a strict guideline for temporary postings and the government never interfered with it,” he said.

However, the opposition said the minister was creating a smoke screen to justify thousands of illegal postings in many departments.

Bill to remove Governor from chancellor post

The bill to amend the Kerala Universities Act is expected to be tabled in the assembly during the session, a government spokesman said. The state cabinet approved the draft bill intended to remove the Governor from the chancellor’s post and appoint independent chancellors to all 14 universities in the state. The existing law will be amended in a way that each of the 14 universities will have separate chancellors.

Governor Arif Mohammad Khan and the government have clashed several times over appointments of vice-chancellors and teachers in varsities, prompting the latter to remove him from the chancellor’s post.

When the Supreme Court quashed the appointment of MS Rajashree as V-C of the APJ Abdul Kalam Technical University in October, saying that the search committee to select a V-C was not constituted as per the norm, and that it failed to recommend three names for the post as per UGC norms.

The search committee had only recommended a single name, making her appointment “illegal” and void ab initio (having no legal effect), the court observed. Soon after the verdict, the Governor asked 11 V-Cs to resign saying they were also appointed by a single panel or recommended by the search committee with a non-academician as member of the panel, drawing the ire of the Pinarayi Vijayan government.

The issue is now in the Kerala high court.

All-woman speaker panel

For the first time in the legislative history of Kerala, an all-woman panel of chairpersons will chair the proceedings of the house in the absence of speaker and deputy speaker. Two are from the ruling Left Democratic Front – U Prathibha and CK Asha – while one is from the opposition – KK Rema.

The new panel was announced by speaker AN Shamseer, who replaced MB Rajesh after becaming a minister. Usually, the panel comprises one woman. As many as 515 members have appeared in the panel since the inception of the assembly, of which only 32 have been women.