Kerala CM's social media team's tenure extended again; expenses amount to over Rs 6 lakh per month

The government has issued an order extending the contract period of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's social media management team by one year.  The government spends Rs 6.67 lakh per month only on salary.

Thiruvananthapuram: The government has issued an order extending the contract period of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's social media management team by one year. The contract period of the 12-member team was extended with reference to the need for continued maintenance of the website and social media. The government spends Rs 6.67 lakh per month only on salary.

The team consists of 12 members, ranging from computer assistants to team leaders were placed to maintain and handle the Chief Minister's website and social media handles. T Muhammad Yahia is the team leader and his salary is Rs 75,000. The salary of Content Manager Sudeep J. Saleem is Rs 70,000. Senior web administrator RK Sandeep, Social Media Coordinator R Vishnu, and Content Strategist Shafiq Salman K will be paid Rs 65,000.

PP Ajith, as Delivery Manager, gets a salary of Rs 56,000, Research department G Jith, Content developer Amal Das and Content Aggregator Rajish Lal are getting Rs 53,000 each.  Data Repository Managers PV Jayakumar and S Shailesh Kumar will get Rs 45,000 each. Computer Assistant P Vysakh will get Rs 22,290 per month.

Initially, they were appointed for a six-month term starting on May 16, 2022. Subsequently, when this term concluded on November 15, 2022, their tenure was extended by an additional year. The extension granted prolonged their service until November 15, 2024.

Meanwhile, the Kerala government sanctioned the medical reimbursement for Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's political secretary and CPI (M) leader P Sasi. An amount of Rs 10,680 for the Ayurvedic treatment taken from September 19 to October 13, 2022, at Poojappura Government Panchakarma Hospital has been sanctioned by the government despite a severe financial crisis. On November 3, 2022, P Sasi submitted an application asking for the money spent on treatment.