THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: On Monday, hours before Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan ordered the transfer of Alappuzha district collector Sriram Venkitaraman, LDF independent legislator from Nilambur P V Anvar wrote a letter to front convener E P Jayarajan. In the short letter, Anvar invited the attention of the LDF convener to the widespread protest against the appointment of Sriram, who is an accused in journalist K M Basheer homicide case, as the collector of Alappuzha and requested his intervention to correct the decision.
Soon after the appointment, former Koduvally MLA and LDF fellow traveller Karattu Razak criticised the decision in public and asked the government to rethink. INL’s lone MLA and minister Ahammed Devarkovil, former minister and MLA K T Jaleel and MLA P T A Rahim were also concerned about the growing protest in North Kerala against the decision. The march by Muslim Jama’aths to all district collectorates last Saturday seeking the removal of Sriram was beyond the wildest calculations by the CPM and LDF. The leadership concluded that day itself that the move had backfired.
“The support CPM had garnered in North Kerala during the last assembly elections was the result of hard work of several years. Winning the confidence of Muslim community was hard initially. But, the proximity shown by Kanthapuram A P Aboobacker Musaliyar to the CPM and CM Pinarayi was a major factor that influenced the change. Antagonising them for a junior official was not at all a feasible idea,” said an LDF leader.
Earlier last week, the CM defended Sriram’s appointment saying that government officials needed to be posted in particular roles in particular phases of their career. He had promised that there wouldn’t be any lapse on the part of prosecution in the case for rash and negligent driving and homicide against Sriram which has been pending trial at the sessions court in Thiruvananthapuram. However, the rules and precedents didn’t support his argument as there is no stipulation for an IAS officer to serve a particular duration as district collector. Had that been the case of field experience, Sriram had achieved that criterion while serving as sub collector for two years at Devikulam.
According to sources close to the CMO, the decision to give the collector posting to Sriram was taken by the CM after he was influenced by a couple of senior bureaucrats and a retired bureaucrat close to him. There was no demand from the IAS officers’ association for a better posting to Sriram as the association is wary of the public sentiments. It is learnt that the young officer approached CPI state secretary Kanam Rajendran and got an assurance about his support before being appointed in a key position in the revenue department handled by a CPI minister.
From Day One, there was strong protest against the decision. While Congress workers staged a demonstration to Alappuzha district collectorate on the day Sriram took over, Kerala Union of Working Journalists organised protest marches in many districts including Alappuzha and Thiruvananthapuram. There were hundreds of comments in the social media pages of ministers with ‘Justice for KMB’ hash tag.