CM Oommen Chandy corrects civic body’s apathy against staffer

KOCHI: It was a rarity in ‘Karuthal-2015’ where mostly poor people and those facing medical and physical issues sought the care of the Chief Minister.

This was the case of a government employee who sought the help of the Chief Minister to get his grievance redressed and since rules didn’t allow him to directly approach the CM, he did it through his wife. Interestingly, his grievance was against a local body, the Aluva municipality.

The petition of P. Suresh Kumar, extension officer at Edappally block panchayat, was against the red-tapism created by the civic body in disbursing the remuneration of an official work undertaken by him four years ago. Suresh was the supervisor in the Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) undertaken in 2011-12 in Aluva municipality area.

The civic body gave only Rs 11,500 of his total remuneration of Rs 24,000. Suresh petitioned the municipality several times for getting the remaining Rs 12,500, but to no avail.

Since he was a state government staffer, rules did not permit him to directly petition the Chief Minister in this regard. Under these circumstances, Suresh’s wife Bindu petitioned the Chief Minister in his ‘Sutharya Kerala’ programme.

However, the Aluva municipality authorities did not even care to answer the query from the programme. Suresh’s wife later petitioned the Chief Minister in ‘Karuthal-2015’ showing all these facts.

Three days ago, in the run-up to the CM’s event, the Aluva municipal secretary handed over the cheque for Rs 12,500 to Suresh. The government employee turned up on Thursday at the collectorate ground to thank the Chief Minister for his prompt action.