Thiruvananthapuram, July 8 (IANS) The Kerala Cabinet on Wednesday decided to hand over the Public Service Commission (PSC) recruitment controversy to the Crime Branch, expanding the scope of the investigation to include not just the recently exposed evaluation lapses but also several appointments that have since come under a cloud, including those to the Kerala Administrative Service (KAS), the State Planning Board and other recruitments.

Announcing the decision after the weekly Cabinet meeting, Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan said the probe would examine the entire sequence of events leading to the alleged irregularities and determine whether there had been any manipulation in the recruitment process.

He said the investigation would also look into the opacity surrounding the interview process.

The Cabinet also discussed the Wayanad landslide tragedy, with the Chief Minister stating that another landslip had occurred above the affected area, further aggravating concerns.

He said a comprehensive techno-legal scrutiny would be undertaken into the circumstances leading to the disaster, including whether the conditions and guidelines attached to the environmental clearance granted by the Centre for activities in the area had been properly complied with.

The Cabinet also reviewed the government’s proposed 100-day action programme and decided to establish a Programme Coordination Office in the Chief Minister’s Office to monitor its implementation.

Progress of the programme, CM Satheesan said, would be made accessible to the public and the media through an Open Court digital platform to ensure transparency and public accountability.

Responding to criticism from CPI(M) leaders over his decision to retain the Finance, Ports and Law portfolios, CM Satheesan rejected the charge that he had concentrated key departments with himself.

Drawing a comparison with former Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, he said the previous Chief Minister had held as many as 29 portfolios, including the Information Technology department, which, he argued, would ordinarily have been with the Industries Minister.

“Did he retain the IT portfolio to facilitate corruption?” CM Satheesan asked, in an apparent reference to allegations levelled by the Left leaders, about his holding multiple portfolios.

The Chief Minister said he had, in fact, been reluctant to keep the Finance portfolio and had conveyed this to his cabinet colleagues.

“I was the least interested in retaining Finance. It was only at the insistence of my colleagues that I accepted the responsibility,” he said.

He added that he had consciously chosen to retain the Ports portfolio because the development of Kerala’s ports had long been one of his principal policy objectives and a vision he intended to pursue during his tenure.

–IANS

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