Mission director to be renominated

Thiruvananthapuram:T K Jose, additional chief secretary of local self-government department (LSGD), has ceased to be the director in Smart City Thiruvananthapuram Ltd (SCTL) due to his repeated absence in board of directors meetings. SCTL will now have to go through the procedure of declaring cessation of Jose's office of director and then renomi-nating him for the same. Jose is one among the 11 directors of the board which is headed by chief secretary Tom Jose.
SCTL CEO P Balakiran said the rules have been made strict under Companies Act and hence the move. “If a director fails to attend four board meetings in a row in a span of 12 months, he will have to be renominated,'' said Balakiran. Jose will have to vacate his office as per section 167 (1) (b) of the Act.
As per records, Jose was absent in 7th board meeting held on 17 April 2018, 8th meeting held on 26 July, 9th meeting held on 22 November 2018 and 10th meeting held on 28 January, 2019.
The move comes at a time when chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan himself had convened a review meeting in June 2018 and fixed new timelines for Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram following reports that Smart City projects were lagging. Sources said that LSGD's conflicts with Thiruvananthapuram corporation over approval of waste management DPR, transfer of corporation secretary, denial of occupancy certificate to buildings with violations kept Jose away from board meetings.
Even the tenth meeting of board of directors of SCTL had thrown up a slew of issues that worsened the already strained relationship between the corporation and LSGD.