Satheesan slams VS for anti-House panel remarks

KOCHI: V D Satheesan MLA has condemned Opposition Leader V S Achuthanandan for breaking the norm by openly giving false statements against the joint Assembly panel, constituted for probing charges of discrepancy in the appointment of his son Arun Kumar as the director of the state-run Institute of Human Resources Department. The Congress legislator said the Opposition leader had not uttered a word when the panel submitted its reports before the Assembly. “The report contains evidence of the nepotism displayed by VS to favour his son. It contains statements against the appointment of Arun Kumar as IHRD joint director. There had been meticulous planning in the registration of the society to appoint Arun Kumar as Director of the Academy,” he said.Norms and procedures were violated on a largescale, and Arun Kumar did not even possess the required qualifications to be appointed the additional director of the institute.It was Achuthanandan who first signed on the application submitted before the District Registrar, claiming Arun Kumar as the director of the state-run ICT Academy. The Information and Technology Secretary countersigned the application, he said.The evidence provided clearly indicates that the entire process was a charade to establish Arun Kumar in the director’s post. The seven years’ teaching experience as well as the certificates provided to the interview panel were fake, Satheesan claimed.Arun Kumar has only a Master’s degree in Computer Applications, as against the required Master’s degree in engineering and eight years’ of teaching experience mentioned as eligibility criteria for the post. The criteria were tinkered with only to suit Arun Kumar’s qualifications. Satheesan also alleged that the interview was also an eyewash and not transparent. He added that the report was submitted before the Assembly panel alongside another report prepared by the Auditor General, giving evidence of similar discrepancies.