A day after the LDF government and the CPI (M) received a backlash in the high court which canceled the appointment of Priya Varghese as an associate professor in the Malayalam department at the Kannur university and thereby provided a shot-in-the-arm for governor Arif Khan who raised the ‘nepotism’ charges, Governor Khan has raised the issue of pension deal of personal staffs of cabinet ministers of the LDF cabinet.
“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.
Governor pointed out that the government is wasting public money by making such appointments and alleged that the government is challenging the judiciary.
The statement from Governor Arif Khan came at a time when the Kerala High Court annulled the appointment of Priya Varghese as an associate professor at Kannur University. Earlier, the Governor also cancelled the appointment of Priya Varghese, citing that she is ineligible.
Meanwhile, the Kerala government is weighing legal options on the feasibility of introducing a bill to remove the governor from the post of chancellor of universities.
Assembly speaker AN Shamseer confirmed that the government has decided to convene a special assembly session between December 5 and 15 in which a bill will be passed on the matter.
Meanwhile, the Kannur university vice chancellor Gopinath Raveendran made it clear that the varsity has no plans to challenge the high court order that cancelled the appointment of Priya Varghese as associate professor.
Gopinath Raveendran said the university had sought legal opinion before appointing Priya Varghese. Though the varsity sought the opinion of the UGC, there was no response. A timely response from the UGC would have helped to avoid the controversy.
Khan has now vowed to end the atrocious’ pension deal for the personal staffs of cabinet ministers. Personal staffs draw salaries ranging from Rs 35,000 to Rs 1, 25,000 every month and become eligible for pension after two years of service. The monthly pension for a staff who completes two years of service is Rs 8,300 and that of one who completes a 5-year service is Rs 21,000.
