THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a severe setback to the
LDF government, governor
P Sathasivam has rejected the name of
CPM leader A A Rashid from the list of information commissioners sent to him by the government.
The governor cleared the other four names submitted by the government. They are : K L Vivekanandan, leader of the pro-CPM organisation, the All Kerala Private College Teachers' Association, K V Sudhakaran, the press secretary of V S Achuthanandan, P R Sreelekha, former additional secretary of law department and Somanatha Pillai, former managing director of Titanium.
It has been learnt that the governor rejected Rashid's name citing the case against him in the controversial university assistant recruitment scam.
Rashid, a district committee member of the CPM, was considered as a close confidant of chief minister
Pinarayi Vijayan.
The state government had submitted the list of five names for the post of state information commissioners in March. A three-member panel comprising chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, law minister A K Balan and opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala selected their names. The opposition leader had objected to the inclusion of A A Rashid in the list.
The governor received a slew of complaints against Rashid from other quarters as well following which he returned the file to the state government.
R S
Sasikumar, higher education protection council convenor and a former syndicate member of the Kerala University had also approached the governor against the government's attempt to appoint Rasheed as the state information commissioner.
The information commission has been functioning with Vinson M Paul as the chief information commissioner but without any commissioners.
With the government approving their names, the new information commissioners will take charge soon.
