No 5-day diktat, says agriculture minister V S Sunil Kumar

Thiruvananthapuram: Agriculture minister V.S. Sunil Kumar on Monday refuted reports that chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan had asked the minsters to be present in capital five days a week. He said there was no directive from the chief minister to the ministers to be present in capital for specific number of days.  He said the norm of five day a week in Thiruvananthapuram cannot be imposed on ministers as they have several programmes outside the district and in their respective assembly segments. 

This being the case, the chief minister can never issue such a directive to his cabinet colleagues, he added. Meanwhile, local bodies minister K.T. Jaleel was made minister in waiting in connection with the forthcoming visit of vice president M Venkaiah Naidu to the state. The Cabinet also decided to re-promulgate ordinances whose term had expired.  Though the ordinances were to be re-promulgated on Friday, the special Cabinet convened for taking the decision had to be put off due to want of quorum. Only 7 of the 19 ministers had attended the Cabinet meeting.