THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Going one more step ahead in his open confrontation with the ruling LDF, Governor Arif Mohammed Khan has withdrawn his 15 nominees in the Kerala University senate. This follows the LDF members’ boycott of a special meeting of the senate on Tuesday, convened as per the direction of the governor, to choose its nominee to the vice-chancellor selection panel. The meeting was abandoned due to lack of quorum.
In his communication, the governor said the members had failed to discharge their duties and responsibilities. “I hereby withdraw my pleasure from allowing them to continue as members in the senate of the university with immediate effect,” he said. Eleven members nominated by the governor had stayed away from the meeting.
The members who faced action are department heads Dr K S Chandrasekhar, Dr Bindu K, Dr Shaila C A and Dr Bindu G Bheemnath, school teachers Suresh Babu R S, Yamuna Devi T S, Harikumar G K and Ajayakumar V and members Shaik P Harriz, Joy Sukumaran, Patmakumar G, N P Chandrasekharan, Muralidharan Pillai G, B Balachandran and Dr P Asokan.
In an apparent move to pacify the governor, the university had on Wednesday decided to convene another meeting of the senate on November 4. The agenda was to decide whether to reconsider its earlier resolution urging the governor to disband the two-member selection panel “unilaterally” constituted by him and whether to choose a senate nominee to the VC selection panel as directed by him. The meeting was convened as per a request given by 65 pro-LDF members in the 91-member senate.
GOVERNOR’S FB ACCOUNT HACKED; RECOVERY EFFORTS ON
T’Puram: Governor Arif Mohammed Khan’s Facebook account was hacked on Saturday morning. The special unit of Kerala Police, Hi-Tech Crime Enquiry Cell, has been entrusted to fix the problem. An official spokesperson for Raj Bhavan said the page would be revived as soon as possible and no sabotage attempt is suspected. The issue came to light after the Governor himself shared about it on his Twitter handle. “My Facebook page appears to be hacked since today morning. The matter has been reported and efforts are on to restore the page,” he tweeted.