The New Indian Express: Thiruvananthapuram:
Friday, 07 August 2020.
Chennithala
demanded to know who had given the permission to come out with a circular which
is against the Right to Information Act, 2005.
Opposition
leader Ramesh Chennithala has challenged Chief Secretary Dr Vishwas Mehta to
file the first case against him after the latter had come out with a
controversial circular informing that criminal charges would be slapped against
officials who leak files signed by the Chief Minister and the Chief Secretary
to outsiders.
Chennithala
demanded to know who had given the permission to come out with a circular which
is against the Right to Information Act, 2005. Talking to reporters at
Cantonment House here on Thursday, he also came down heavily against the LDF
government's lapses in combating the pandemic.
Mehta
had come out with a “confidential circular” (No.563/CS/2020/CSO) on Wednesday
stating that severe disciplinary action, investigation and criminal proceedings
would be initiated in all cases where officials were found to be negligent or
involved directly/indirectly in leaking information to outsiders. This is seen
as a breach of the RTI Act, 2005, passed by Parliament which sets out the rules
and procedures regarding citizens' right to information.
“The
Chief Secretary should immediately cancel this order. I will be taking legal
action against the Chief Secretary. Since I have pages of several files signed
by the Chief Minister and Chief Secretary with me, let him slap the first case
against me,” said Chennithala.
Regarding
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s allegation that the Opposition leader is
two-faced, Chennithala retaliated that he is casting such aspersions to hide
his own two-faced behaviour. While the
Opposition has been rallying behind the LDF government in the efforts to fight COVID-19,
Pinarayi has been blaming them without any rhyme or reason for the failure to
combat the pandemic, he said. Chennithala blamed the Pinarayi government for
sending out the wrong message to the public that they had been able to combat
the pandemic when the curve was going up.
“If the
LDF government had increased the number of COVID-19 tests, things would not
have gone haywire. Every day people are seeing how two cabinet ministers are
sitting idle when Pinarayi Vijayan has been resorting to his daily dose of
sermons. I had sat on an eight hour dharna in front of the Secretariat for the
first time since I became the Opposition leader against the LDF government’s
decision to make COVID-19 negative certificates mandatory. Was it due to the
dharna that the situation went out of control in Kasaragod, Mattancherry,
Poonthura and other coastal areas?” asked Chennithala.
The UDF
will be holding a dharna across the 24,000 booth committees on Monday demanding
Pinarayi’s resignation from office and also seeking a CBI probe into the role
of the Chief Minister’s Office following the gold smuggling case.
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