Trivandrum: Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan on Saturday slammed Kannur University Vice-Chancellor Gopinath Ravindran over nepotism allegations, and stated that soon a probe will scrutinise all appointments made to various universities in the state.
Ever since alleged irregularities in the appointment of Priya Varghese as the Associate Professor at Kannur University have been reported, Khan has been holding university authorities and the ruling Left government in the state accountable.
Priya is the wife of former CPI-M Rajya Sabha member K.K.Raghesh, who is presently the private secretary to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
"He (VC) has gone all-out to please the party in power. Now, it's an open secret that other candidates with higher marks were sidelined to make way for Priya," Khan told the media.
Incidentally, the interview to select Priya was held last year a few days before Ravindran was to retire. Soon after the interview, Ravindran got an extension, which is a rarity.
He went on to add: "We need to put a break on this as people's money cannot be spent like this," he asserted.
"Starting from the lowest post to the highest, appointments are being made to Universities and I will soon launch a full-fledged inquiry into this," said Khan who seems to be in no mood to relent.
Khan's insistence can also spell trouble for the wife of two-time former Lok Sabha member P.K.Biju, who has got a teaching job in Kerala University.
The appointment of the wife of the present State Industries Minister and former Rajya Sabha member P.Rajiv, at the Cochin University, also might get a re-look.
Speaker of the Kerala Assembly M.B. Rajesh's wife's job surfaced at the Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, Kalady.
So all in all, it could spell more trouble for Vijayan, who has maintained silence about the incident, despite Khan clashing with the present CPI-M government and their ways.
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