Thiruvananthapuram 24 Aug : The Congress on Wednesday condemned Kerala’s Pinarayi Vijayan government for turning universities in the state to “party offices”.Opposition Leader of Opposition V.D.Satheesan who was announcing this problem in the Assembly, said that while universities should be centers of excellence however, they have unfortunately been a place for backdoor appointments of the family members of (Left) “party leader”.
“The scene is that each day, we are told of backdoor appointments of the family members of Party leaders, which results in merit being denied anything whatsoever.The scenario is such that today only those closely associated with the party can be able to get an appointment and the Universities are becoming offices of the party.In addition the Vice Chancellors have become just puppets.” he said.
The house also witnessed angered exchanges between the treasury and opposition benches, when Congress legislator Roji M.John threatened to divulge the names of the wives of the treasury bench legislators who have received backdoor appointments.
For some time the appointment decision issued by Kannur University to Priya Varghese who is the spouse of the Chief Secretary of the Minister K.K.Ragesh who is accused of ignoring qualifications and merit has been debated across various platforms.
After the news broke initially Governor Arif Mohammed Khan stayed the appointment, and the Kerala High Court soon followed the suit.
However, in the Assembly the the minister of higher education in the state, R.Bindhu said all required laws and regulations of the UGC were followed and the appointment was in order.
All eyes are now focused on Khan who, after a brief stop in Delhi returns to his official residence in the city later in the daytime.
Khan has “declared war” on Kannur University Vice Chancellor Gopinath Ravindran and called him a political activist of CPI-M.
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