Tamil Nadu Minister RS Rajakannappan was divested of his transport portfolio on Tuesday after an officer claimed that the minister used a casteist slur against him. According to a Raj Bhavan release, Rajakannappan’s portfolios of transport, nationalised transport, and the Motor Vehicles Act will now be handled by Minister S S Sivasankar, based on Chief Minister M K Stalin’s recommendations.
Sivasankar’s department of Welfare of Backward Classes, Most Backward Classes, and Denotified Communities has been transferred to Rajakannappan, who has been designated Minister for Backward Classes Welfare.
The portfolio divestment, the first since the DMK took power in May 2021, is significant because the ruling party (unlike past AIADMK regimes) does not generally resort to it, with a few exceptions. The action comes in response to a complaint filed by a Ramanathapuram District Block Development Officer. Rajakannappan, he claimed, had chastised him on March 27 by calling to him by his caste name.
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