Friday, Dec 24, 2004
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Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary | Kerala
By Our Special Correspondent
KOZHIKODE, DEC. 23. The Leader of the Opposition, V. S. Achuthanandan, has said that the UDF Government has usurped the powers of the Governor by increasing the number of members of the Kerala Public Service Commission (PSC). At a press conference today, Mr. Achuthanandan said that though the Government had the authority to make such a proposal, it (proposal) needed the approval of the Governor to become constitutionally valid. He said that the Government was confident of getting the Governor's consent ``as he is a Congress man.'' Mr. Achuthanandan said that increasing the number of members from 15 to 18 went against the UDF Government's professed commitment to cut expenditure. He said that the UDF Government headed by A.K. Antony had downsized the Human Rights Commission and the Ombudsman in the pretext of cost-cutting. ``Why did the Chandy Government reverse that policy,'' he asked.
Norms violated
Mr. Achuthanandan said that the new PSC did not conform to the norm that half the number of members should have at least 10 years experience in Government service. Some of the new members did not fulfil that criterion since they had only served as teachers in private colleges who could not be considered Government employees, he said. Mr. Achuthanandan said that the existing strength of 15 was sufficient. In other States it was much less. Even the Union Public Service Commission had only 11 members. With its existing strength, the PSC was able to reduce backlog of applications that had piled up in its office when it took charge. He wondered what was the real motive behind this increase. Mr. Achuthanandan said that the increase was not to accommodate the interests of UDF constituents as most of the slots were pocketed by the Congress and the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), he said.
Public debt mounting
Mr. Achuthanandan also quoted statistics to point out that the State's public debt had gone up under UDF rule. ``The Finance Minister, Vakkom Purushothaman, had admitted it,'' he said. He said that the Government owed an explanation to the people on how public debt had gone up so much even though it had been collecting taxes from the people and had taken loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The Government had said that it had no money to pay relief to farmers or to write off their debts. It should also explain where all the borrowed money had gone?'' he said.
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