Kerala: Minister V Sivankutty in trouble over role in backdoor appointments to 10 more people
More evidence revealing Minister V Sivankutty's involvement in illegal appointments under his own department has surfaced. Ten additional individuals were appointed to the Kerala Institute of Labour and Employment (KILE) via the backdoor in addition to the DYFI woman leader, according to evidence obtained by Asianet News.
FollowThiruvananthapuram: Noose has tightened around Labour Minister V Sivankutty in connection with the backdoor appointments in Kerala Institute of Labour and Employment (KILE). More evidence revealing the minister's involvement in illegal appointments under his own department has surfaced. Ten additional individuals were appointed via the backdoor in addition to the DYFI woman leader, according to evidence obtained by Asianet News. Thus, KILE is now under tremendous financial strain as a result of power abuse.
Last day, it was reported that Sivankutty intervened and illegally appointed DYFI leader Surya Heman as Publicity assistant at KILE. However, it has now come to light that ten additional individuals, ranging from a project coordinator to a sweeper, were hired over the party's interference. During the time that V Sivankutty served as chairman of KILE, eight temporary positions to manage the Employment Exchange were made. After becoming a minister, he constantly wrote to the finance department requesting to validate the appointment of these employees.
In the reply given by the Secretary of the Finance Department on March 15, it was stated that the appointment cannot be validated and if there is a need for employees in KILE, the appointment should be made after submitting a proposal to the government.
What happens when the proposal is delivered? Through employment exchange, a sufficient quantity of workers will be hired. In that case, the party engagement will not happen. After appointing the DYFI leader, they went to the Finance Department for approval to get around this. In response to the authorities' objections, the minister and KILE chairman even met with the Chief Minister to resolve the issue.
Due to these illegal appointments, additional liability was incurred upon KILE. For the year 2021-22, the allocation for the salary of the project staff is Rs. 39.66 lakhs. The amount spent on salaries increased to Rs 64.68 lakh when party members were appointed in KILE. Referring to these issues, the finance department first instructed to dismiss all those who were appointed illegally.
On August 21, 2019, the Pinarayi Cabinet issued several decisions, one of which was that no appointment to KILE shall be made without first receiving approval. For the benefit of his party supporters, a minister in his cabinet disobeyed the rules. This makes it obvious that there was a misuse of power to get party members jobs.
