Southern States - Kerala   

Making a mockery of Vigilance report?

By P. Venugopal

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM JUNE 27. The general public perceives the Industry Minister, P. K. Kunhalikutty, a strong votary of public sector accountability, as the only corporate-minded Minister in the UDF Government.

In fact, through his eloquent expositions on the factors that had led to the sorry state of the State's public sector, he has been projecting himself as a leader committed to the task of purging the public sector of its many evils -- corruption, nepotism and lack of accountability.

His own Ministry, however, does not seem to be enthused by his philosophy. It is bringing back to the helm of one of the State public sector undertakings (PSUs) an officer who was expelled from service following charges that included duplicity and using the company's funds for gratifying the Minister and his personal staff with gifts.

The department, vide an order, G.O.(RT)588/03/ID, dated June 19, 2003, dismissed the charges against the expelled officer, T. C. Radhakrishnan, on the basis of an explanation received from him and he is now to resume charge as the Managing Director of the Kerala State Handloom Development Corporation (Hanveev).

The services of Mr. Radhakrishnan were terminated in January 1998, following a Vigilance inquiry, which confirmed that he had joined Hanveev as general manager in 1986 misrepresenting facts relating to his previous experience. The inquiry had found that the certificates submitted by him for winning appointment as the company's general manager were forged.

One of the charges, which the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau had substantiated against him, was that he had unauthorisedly spent the company's funds to present gifts to many people including Mr. Kunhalikutty and some of the members of his personal staff in 1995 (when Mr. Kunhalikutty was the Industries Minister in the previous UDF Government).

In the Government order reinstating him in service, there is no mention about the Vigilance observations about the duplicity (forged certificates) through which he had originally obtained appointment in the Hanveev. This was actually the key issue on which he was expelled from service.

The order mentions only two charges: one involving nepotism in certain appointments n the company and the other relating to the presentation of gifts to VIPs using the company's funds.

The order concludes with the following words: "The Government has examined the matter in detail and it is seen that Sri. Radhakrishnan is not directly involved in the irregularities pointed out in the (Vigilance) inquiry report. In the above circumstances, the Government is pleased to order that the disciplinary action on the basis of the Vigilance report is hereby dropped''.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Southern States

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

• Mining rights: `a fit case for judicial probe'
• No let-up in tension at Marad
• Unaided schools to be brought under new legislation
• Govt. to bring in law on fee structure
• Victimised by police, youth finds life a nightmare
• Police now under pressure from middlemen: Sudheeran
• Making a mockery of Vigilance report?
• Schemes for Kochi airport approved
• Board to assess police performance mooted

Copyright © 2003, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu