A new world record? Ex-Kerala CM claims he signed 60 files in 60 seconds!

Disposing of 60  files in a minute while giving ear to the grievances of 500 to 1,000 persons every day would be a staggering figure for any Chief Minister. Former Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has just claimed that he was doing just that. 

It would have been a record of sorts.  Unfortunately, the context in which Chandy made the claim was not so favourable for him and the mood among the audience far less approving. 

"I used to sign sixty files in a minute. During the Mass Contact Programme, I met 2000 to 5,000 people a day and listen to their grievances," Chandy said while deposing before the Judicial Commission probing the sensational solar scam.

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 "As many as 500 to 1,000 people used to visit me and submit their grievances. I may look at them. But their faces may not register in my mind," Chandy said while trying to defend himself when he was confronted with a question on whether he had met Saritha S Nair, one of the main accused in the multi-core scam.  

When Chandy stated that he used to approve sixty files in a minute, Justice G Sivarajan intervened to remind him that it was a staggering one file in a second! The idea was not to allow files concerning the problems of the public accumulate, the former CM responded. 

Revelations that the solar scam accused Saritha S Nair had met Chandy in his office when he was the Chief Minister had whipped up a political storm in Kerala. Team Solar, Saritha's firm had also submitted a cheque of Rs. 2 lakhs to the Chief Minister's distress relief fund and got an acknowledgement letter signed by Chandy. Though Tenny Joppen, the   Chandy’s long-time aide and former personal staff member, was arrested by the police in connection with the scam, the Congress leader had denied all charges levelled against him. 

No wonder, Chandy's 60-files-in-60-seconds claim elicited no wows! 
 

• Oommen Chandy
• Solar scam
• Saritha S Nair
• Solar Commission