A day after the Kerala High Court quashed the proposed appointment of Priya Varghese, wife of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s private secretary, as associated professor at the Malayalam department in Kannur University, Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan came out against the practice of granting pension to those who serve just two years as personal staff of ministers in the state.
Speaking to media persons on Friday, Governor Khan called the policy of granting pension to those who serve just two years as ministers’ personal staff as unjustifiable. “It is pure violation of the spirit of the Constitution, the spirit of law and highly discriminatory,” the Governor told media persons in New Delhi.
He said he could not give instructions to stop this practice. However, he said that he would make it a big issue at the national level.
“For soldiers who are working even in places with 40 degree C temperatures, a minimum service of 10 years is necessary to get pension, in Kerala people appointed for just two years to ministers’ office get life pension. This is unjustifiable,” he said.
Terming such appointments as a huge scam, the Governor said that the government is wasting public money by making such appointments.
“Each minister appoints around 25 employees as personal staff. After two years, they were asked to resign and were given a life-long pension for their services. This is a scam. However, I can’t demand that this practice should end. But, this matter will be discussed at the national level in near future,” he said.
Ministers’ personal staff members in Kerala enjoy an assured pension benefit, just like legislators, whereas government employees who joined service after 2013 have to settle for contributory pension.
It may be noted that the statutory pension scheme is not applicable to the state government employees and teachers who joined service from 1 April 2013 onwards The Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) was made applicable to employees and teachers joining service from 1 April 2013.
Every new government in Kerala sneaks hundreds of people into government service while tens of thousands of youngsters selected by the PSC wait for appointment.
Governor Khan’s fresh salvo against the government is putting both the ruling LDF and the Opposition UDF in a bind, as the issues raised by him over the payment of pension to personal staff of ministers are getting traction among the people. They find it difficult to attack the governor over the issue, as the public sentiment has now gone against the ‘Kerala Model’ of creating jumbo personal staff for ministers and providing statutory pension to even those who have completed two year-and-a-half years of service.
Kerala is the only state where people are appointed for just two years as ministers staff get life pension.