Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala has perhaps the most unenviable job in the Oommen Chandy Cabinet, though public focus is almost entirely on Finance Minister K.M. Mani who is caught in the bar bribery row. Kerala Police, which he presides over, have been under a cloud for some time, despite there being many upright and efficient officers and personnel at all levels of the force and the Kerala Police launching some innovative and people-friendly projects over the past few years.
Mr. Chennithala was able to ride out of the sense of insecurity arising from intermittent ‘Maoist attacks’ in urban and forest areas, but not so when the Chandrabose murder case, involving controversial businessman Mohamed Nisham, blew in the face of the police force’s credibility.
Although for many it appeared an open-and-shut case, the course that the investigation took did not reflect well on the force.
Now comes reports that jockeying is on for the top job once the present State Police Chief K.S. Balasubramanian retires shortly. The Home Minister, it seems, may have some real work to do in the days to come.
Public administration is often about the use of imaginative measures. Recently, newly appointed Kozhikode District Collector N. Prasanth came up with one such initiative, successfully.
Instead of waiting for help from the cash-strapped State government to meet certain urgent requirements of the Government Mental Health Centre in the city, he straightaway posted an appeal for help from the public on his recently created official Facebook account.
Based on his own experience from a visit to the hospital, besides disturbing information contained a letter sent to him by the Hospital Superintendent Ravikumar Sadanandan, the Collector portrayed a touching picture of the mental health hospital on his page. He also attached to his post a list of things, including household articles, urgently required by the hospital for its hapless inmates.
The young administrator was wise enough to add a clause to his post: “No cash assistance please”. Instead he sought a number of things such as buckets, tables, wheelchairs, airbeds, plastic chairs, nail cutters and CFL bulbs from potential benefactors. The response was overwhelming, probably showing that there is considerable large-heartedness out there waiting to be tapped intelligently.
Detractors of Calicut University Vice Chancellor M. Abdul Salam lose no opportunity to voice their criticism of the man who has been at the centre of many a controversy. Protests have been a regular feature of his public programmes.
Dr. Salam too has his way of rebuttal, something that he displayed at a recent function held on the campus.
The Vice Chancellor was attending a function that had a fair presence of employees, teachers, and students. Everybody waited in anticipation of a strong protest, but Dr.. Salam knew better. He walked away soon after the chief guest performed his role, giving the opposition no opportunity to have things their way.
With inputs from
C. Gouridasan Nair
(Thiruvananthapuram), Jabir Mushthari
(Kozhikode) and Abdul Latheef Naha (Malappuram)
