With backdoor appointments in the state-run Kerala Institute of Labour and Employment (KILE) coming to the fore Leader of the Opposition in the Kerala Assembly VD Satheesan on Wednesday demanded the resignation of state Labour Minister V Sivankutty.
Satheesan also demanded that the government should immediately dismiss all those who have been appointed through the backdoor and urged the state government to order a probe into all the appointments made in the KILE when Sivankutty was the chairman of the KILE and during his period as the minister for labour.
“The minister, who has committed a violation of oath of office, is not entitled to continue in office, even for a moment. If there is a little bit of political decency and dignity left, Sivankutty should resign himself and face the probe,” Satheesan said in a statement here on Wednesday.
The Congress leader further said that the Pinarayi Vijayan Government was ruling the state not for the three and a half crore people of the state, not for his party men.
He further alleged that backdoor appointments were being taken place in all the wings and institutions of government. Appointment of SFI and DYFI leaders and their cronies in state-run institutions, keeping qualified youths in the dark, is a challenge to the youth and public in the state, he said.
Satheesan said that Sivankutty made the appointments in KILE in violation of a 2019 cabinet decision that no appointment should be made without prior permission. With the massive recruitment of party members, the salary cost in KILE rose from Rs 39 lakhs to RS. 64 lakhs, he added.
A woman-DYFI leader who was first appointed on daily wages was later given an appointment on a contract basis as a publicity assistant in KILE. Ten others have also got appointments in the Institute in the same manner on various posts from project coordinator to sweeper. Though the Finance Department objected to the proposal first, it approved the posting following the intervention of Minister Sivankutty, it is reported.