Pinarayi Vijayan and EP JayarajanFrom PSU honchos to ministerial staff to law officers, everything is up for grabs for the relatives of ministers and ruling party leaders. Ordinary workers who toiled to bring the party to power are left out in the process, reports Jayachandran Ilankath, V R Prathap and Jithin Jose.
Advocates who grouped together to bar journalists from covering court proceedings were helpless when the government appointed a lawyer from Thrissur as a senior government pleader. CPM loyalists among them were left fuming when the lawyer, who is better known for appearing for an accused in a hooch tragedy case in Malabar, was brought in to the key post in violation of all norms.
The senior government pleader’s only eligibility was his client’s perceived closeness with some of the party’s district leaders in Thrissur, sources in the CPM-leaning advocates’ association said. The government had ignored all Supreme Court-directed norms regarding the appointment of prosecutors, pleaders and counsels to appoint the advocate, who himself is an accused in a criminal case.
The team of the state government’s law officers include the Advocate General, two additional advocates general, director general of prosecution, two additional directors general of prosecution, state attorney, 15 special government pleaders, 47 senior government pleaders and 47 government pleaders. Most of them went to advocates related to ministers or party leaders. People who had toiled for the party were left out.
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During the term of the previous Left Democratic Front government, a woman advocate was appointed as additional government pleader in Kannur. Strangely, her name was not featured in any of the lists submitted by the lawyers’ union or the party’s district committee. She was a nominee of the son of a party minister from Kannur. She has managed to find a place in the list of pleaders even this time.
This time, her promoters were smart enough to squeeze in her name as the nominee of another party within the ruling coalition. Obviously, the CPM-leaning lawyers cannot object to an ally’s choice.
Another woman advocate from Kollam was picked as a government pleader in the high court. Those checking for their qualifications to be in the post were told that she is the daughter of a prominent advocate who was a member of the CPM’s area committee. The appointment was apparently a trade off for the party leader who actually wanted to contest the assembly election!
Senior CPM leader V S AchuthanandanInvisible ties
As the Leader of the Opposition, V S Achuthanandan had written to the then party secretary Pinarayi Vijayan about one of his additional private secretaries. “There are some serious allegations raised against an additional private secretary in my office. He is also involved in a criminal case related to a missing girl. I request you to remove him from my staff.”
The controversial figure, however, continues in a key position with a salary equal to an additional private secretary. After all, he married the daughter of an MLA.
Industries minister E P Jayarajan is said to have signed an order appointing an officer from a central research firm as his adviser. The minister’s office in the North Block of the secretariat was rife with accounts of the teaming up of the officer with a former minister’s son who was appointed as the managing director of a public sector enterprise. The officer is known for the influence he wields in the minister’s office.
He ventured to be the adviser of the industries minister after securing a position in administrative committee of the Public Sector Restructuring and Internal Audit Board (RIAB), which is entrusted with recruiting heads for public sector undertakings. His appointment, however, is in limbo thanks to the raging controversy about favoritism in appointment.
Between the officer and the former minister’s son, they would have split the industries department, even the staff say.
(To be continued…)
