Kerala Govt. Violates Padma Award Norms

Thiruvananthapuram: An RTI filed has revealed that Kerala government has flouted all norms prescribed by Central government and Supreme Court directive, while preparing the list of Padma Award nominees. It was a sub committee headed by ministers who prepared the list of eligible nominees this time, instead of the regular search committee, authorized by Central government. The matter has come to light following an RTI filed by Advocate DB Binu.

The duty of Central government authorized search committee is to find out the eligible nominees in each state, but Kerala has flouted this norm, with such a committee being conspicuously absent. According to norms, the committee should comprise of the Chief Minister, leader of opposition, speaker and Chief Justice. But this has not yet been constituted in Kerala. Another norm that has been flouted is with regard to recommendations. The state minister for cultural affairs had earlier specified that he should not be approached with recommendations. However, it was later revealed that he had breached his own rule.

The current committee consists of ministers KC Joseph, Adoor Prakash, MK Muneer, PJ Joseph, AP Anil Kumar, chief secretary Jiji Thomson etc. The nominees this time include Dr VP Gangadharan, P Jayachandran, KM Roy, Chemmancherry Kunjiraman Nair, Preeja Sasidharan etc, among 12 others.