Kerala: CPM in poll mode after gold shock

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a stern message to private secretaries of CPM ministers, CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said all staff members of ministers should realise the importance of coming months and ensure that not even minor slip-ups occur in their professional and personal lives. Kodiyeri was addressing a meeting of private secretaries, the senior most members of personal staff, at AKG Centre.
The meeting was convened as decided by the CPM state secretariat, which discussed the gold smuggling scandal involving M Sivasankar, former secretary to chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan. According to sources, Kodiyeri told the officials as elections are nearing, they should be working over-time with added diligence. Any lapse on their part would be costly as local body polls would be in October and assembly polls, early next year.
The CPM state secretary reminded the officials about the code of conduct, which the party formulated in 2016 and asked them to ensure that each member of the personal staff adhered to the provisions in the code of conduct. Even a minor lapse on part of personal staff members won’t be tolerated, he is learnt to have told the meeting.
Each private secretary was asked to brief about their plans for the coming months to complete the major projects in his department promise in the LDF’s election manifesto. He asked them to prepare concrete plans to implement whatever promises that remain to be fulfilled and to act as point of contact between ministers and officials.
The meeting convened by the CPM state secretary triggered a controversy too as opposition found the meeting a violation of rules of business of the government. RSP leader N K Premachandran said that the attendance by government servants in a meeting at a party office convened by a party secretary is a serious breach of code of conduct of government servants.
“Private secretaries are government officials holding the rank of deputy secretary and above. They are bound by code of conduct for government officials. As per clause 67, government employees are banned from directly engaging in political activities,” Premachandran said. He alleged that by allowing such a meeting, CM Pinarayi Vijayan also breached the oath of office and secrecy.
Rebuffing the allegations, Vijayan said there was nothing wrong in convening such meetings. “There is no danger in such meetings. Normally, such discussions are arranged to provide inputs for better functioning of the concerned departments,” Vijayan replied to a query.