Minister in dock over postings
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In a shocking revelation, former director of the Co-operative Academy of Professional Education (CAPE-Kerala) KS Premachandra Kurup IAS has told the Kerala high court that unacceptable interference by cooperation minister C.N. Balakrishnan was responsible for his recent resignation from the post in June last.
In specific, he cited the stands taken by the cooperation minister in the appointments made to the CAPE and the admissions for the MBBS for 15 candidates under the NRI quota.
The high court recorded Kurup’s submissions and asked the advocate general to present the details before the court.
Kurup submitted that the minister had taken the stand that he would not approve the selection list for assistant professors to CAPE if it did not contain the names given by the minister's office.
According to Kurup, CAPE invited applications for the selection of assistant professors, and the selection test was conducted by the state productivity council on November 26 last.
The final list, after conducting the written test and interview, was handed over to the private secretary of the cooperation minister, who was the chairman of the executive committee of CAPE.
However, the list was not sent back with the minister's signature. Kurup then paid a visit to the minister's office.
There, the minister’s private secretary told him the list did not contain all the names given by minister’s office and that he (the director) selected persons of his choice.
Kurup explained to the minister that the selection list was prepared in a fair and reasonable manner, but he got the reply that the minister would not approve the list.
The minister insisted that the director cancel the test and interview, and asked the private secretary to get ready a few complaints against the OMR test and hand them over to the director.
So, two complaints raising allegations on the conduct of OMR test were received from the minister’s office, Kurup said.
The court, after going through the affidavit, asked the state whether the IAS officials in the state were helpless? The court also asked the state whether the personal secretaries of the ministers were authorized to issue directions to IAS officials.
A division bench comprising chief justice Manjula Chellur and justice AM Shaffique passed the observation when an affidavit filed by Kurup IAS on a petition challenging the decision to cancel the appointments made to the CAPE, came up.
Kurup also submitted that the minister interfered with the appointment of 15 NRI quota admissions in the Cochin Medical College under CAPE.
The minister asked him to admit students of his choice.
Kurup submitted that about five senior officials had also resigned from CAPE within five days of his resignation in protest against the government order.
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