Thiruvananthapuram, Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala has hit back at Leader of Opposition in the Keralam Assembly Pinarayi Vijayan over his criticism of a recent high-level meeting involving the Lokayukta, saying the allegations were “misleading” and “not based on facts”.
He said a meeting was held on August 1, 2006, under then Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan, with Lokayukta Justice K Sreedharan, Upa-Lokayuktas Justice N Krishnan Nair and Justice K A Mohammed Shafi, then Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and senior officials in attendance. He said the Lokayukta raised nine matters at the meeting, including forwarding complaints and petitions received against government officials to it for investigation under Section 7 of the Kerala Lokayukta Act, 1999.
He said he had not intervened as Home minister to convene the meeting and that it was held after the Lokayukta officially requested the government to do so, citing the need for urgent government intervention to remove administrative hurdles affecting its functioning. “At that time, you were the all-powerful party secretary, and the then Home minister was your trusted follower,” Chennithala said, referring to Vijayan. He said meetings between the government and constitutional or judicial institutions on administrative matters were routine, and pointed out that Vijayan had also held several meetings with High Court Chief Justices when he was CM. Against this backdrop, Chennithala said the Lokayukta had requested that a meeting be convened, and the government agreed to it.
“The allegation of the Leader of Opposition is like the old saying that what is known as black is being described as white,” Chennithala said.
