Thiruvananthapuram: Higher Education Minister R Bindhu was given a clean chit by the Kerala Lokayukta on Friday, in connection with the Kannur University Vice Chancellor reappointment row.
The former Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala had filed a petition with the Lokayukta Justice Cyriac Joseph recently alleging that the minister had sought the reappointment of Prof Gopinath Ravindran as the VC by writing to Kerala Governor Ariff Mohammed Khan. The Congress leader said the Minister’s intervention was tantamount to misuse of her official position.
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However, during a detailed hearing on the petition the other day the Lokayukta reportedly took a lenient view of the minister’s conduct. It said that the minister’s letter was a suggestion rather than a recommendation and that the Governor could have accepted or rejected her letter. Justice Cyriac Joseph even questioned the relevance of a probe into the matter, when neither the Chancellor nor Pro-Chancellor of Universities comes under the purview of the Lokayukta and both the parties- the Governor and the Minister, had admitted the exchange of the letter.
In the minister’s defence, the Kerala government had argued that the letter was submitted on the request of the Governor asking for names of candidates to be considered for appointment as the VC. It’s likely this letter sealed the fate of the plea as well as made irrelevant the public stand of the Governor on the issue.
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The Lokayukta will also take up for hearing a petition against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan for sanctioning funds from the Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF)to the families of former Chengannur MLA Late KK Ramachandran Nair and the deceased gunman of CPM State Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan. The petition alleged that the funds were allotted violating norms.
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