No turf war involved in Nalini Netto's exit, says CM Pinarayi

Thiruvananthapuram: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has reacted sharply to reports which suggested that his Chief Principal Secretary Nalini Netto had quit over differences with another senior official in the Chief Minister's Office (CMO). “Nalini Netto submitted the resignation on her own after her brother was appointed as my private secretary,” said the chief minister.

R Mohanan, a former Income Tax commissioner, is the chief minister's new private secretary. He replaces M V Jayarajan, who has been sent to Kannur as the district secretary of the CPM. Mohanan is the brother of Nalini Netto, who resigned on Tuesday.

“The coverage of Nalini Netto's resignation by the media is a good example of twisting facts,” said Pinarayi while inaugurating the Left Front’s Thiruvanananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency convention.

“The media engaged in rumour-mongering on Tuesday, the day Nalini Netto quit. What all things did the channel reporters say? They claimed Nalini Netto had put in her papers over a running dispute with a big gun in the CMO. The former private secretary M V Jayarajan used to engage in fire-fighting operations, the reporters said. However, the situation became worse after Jayarajan left, according to the reporters. The discussions in TV channels in the evening also dealt with the same issue,” said Pinarayi.

“Anyway, I have cleared the file related to Mohanan’s appointment at noon on Wednesday,” informed the chief minister.

R Mohanan, an Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, was earlier an officer with the Reserve Bank of India. He took voluntary retirement while serving as Income Tax commissioner in Coimbatore. Since then, Mohanan has been serving as senior consultant at Gulati Institute of Finance and Taxation in Thiruvananthapuram and visiting fellow at Centre for Development Studies.