THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The legislature panel constituted under the chairmanship of V D Satheesan MLA has found the appointment of V A Arun Kumar, son of Opposition Leader V S Achuthanandan, as Director of the ICT Academy under IHRD and promoting himself as Additional- Director, IHRD, as illegal. However, the committee, which probed the charges levelled against Achuthanandan by P C Vishnunath MLA during the discussion on the revised budget of the government on July 12, 2011, rejected the two other allegations of illegality in the appointment of Arun Kumar as Director, Model Finishing School, and financial misappropriations in the dealings with the institution called ‘Space’ for want of sufficient evidence. The report was finalised by majority vote in the nine-member committee consisting of five ruling front members and four Opposition members. Terming the findings politically motivated and prepared in view of the Piravom byelections, the Opposition members tabled their dissenting note on the floor of the House.After tabling the committees’ report in the House, Satheesan told a news conference that the ICT Academy was envisaged to train the candidates to empower them for getting appointed in companies in the IT and ITES sectors.Kerala State Information Technology Infrastructure Ltd (KSITIL) had been entrusted to open the academy under PPP project. K Biju, an IAS officer, was appointed as special officer for the project.As he was progressing well with his mission to set up the academy, even without informing him, IHRD entered the scene expressing its interest to open the academy under it on July 15, 2010. The committee found the sudden shift in government’s favour to open the academy as a society under IHRD was mysterious. The panel said there had been meticulous planning to the registration of the society to appoint Arun Kumar as Director of the Academy. It said the Accountant-General’s report also had pointed out that Arun Kumar had no required eligibility to become the Additional-Director of IHRD.
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