KOCHI | Thursday, January 1, 2009 | Email | Print | 
Anil Kumar, Joseph tender resignations
PNS | Thiruvananthapuram
Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan’s IT Advisor Joseph C Mathew and D Anil Kumar, Senior Government Pleader in the Advocate General’s office resigned from their posts on Wednesday following the CPI(M) leadership’s instruction to the Chief Minister to remove the two. Joseph presented his resignation to the Chief Minister in the afternoon while Anil Kumar tendered his resignation to the Advocate general reaching his home in the morning.
Speaking to mediapersons after tendering his resignation to the Chief Minister, Joseph C Mathew said the CPI(M) had turned against him for pointing out the irregularities in the HMT land deal with Mumbai-based Blue Star Realtors. “During the controversy over the HMT land deal, I had said the industrial unit proposed for that land (Cyber city) was not actually an IT unit on the basis of my studies of certain documents,” he said.
He said that his statement was in violation with the stand of Industries Minister Elamaram Kareem and the Chief Minister pointed out it was not proper to make such statement. “I agreed to it, and have not made any statement like that afterwards,” Mathew said. “I have always opposed those who had tried to get Special Economic Zone status for their units in the name of IT. In such cases, I had only tried to fulfill my responsibility,” he added.
He pointed out that another official (Industries Department Principal Secretary T Balakrihsnan) had gone around the State with statements and speeches at seminars arguing the land Reforms Act had been outdated. But the party had not taken any serious action against this official, he said. “I don’t think it is a communist approach to take action against me while sparing an official who advocated the cause of those who were trying to sabotage the Land Reforms,” he said.
Joseph Mathew reiterated that the State policies on SEZs were not suitable for the Left front. “The 13 clauses listed in the SEZ policy of the LDF and the Government were in fact intended to help the big sharks,” he said.
“I had never seen the position of IT Advisor to the Chief Minister as part of my career,” Joseph Mathew, an IT professional and industrialist with transnational relations, said. ‘My political mission ends here,” he concluded.
Anil Kumar, who preferred to remain silent after resigning from his Governmental assignment, is known as an erudite legal expert, specialised highly in property-related legal procedures. As Senior Government Pleader, he was the chief source of legal information and advises to the Chief Minister and the entire Government in matters related to land encroachment.
It was on the strength of the legal support base that Anil Kumar had devised, the Chief Minister had launched the Mission Munnar anti-encroachment mission in May 2003, which enhanced the sagging popularity graph of the Government, Achuthanandan and the LDF alike. Legal experts based in the Kerala High Court in Kochi said it was because of Anil Kumar’s meticulous planning the Judiciary did not find any need for interfering in the mission in Munnar despite the continuous complaints from owners of giant resort.
However, the neo-liberalist leadership of the CPI(M) was forced to do a rethink on the role of Anil Kumar after the Idukki district leadership of the party raised complaints against the mission as the task force there began to act in violation of its allegedly parochial interests.
Even when the High Court initiated proceedings over the mission based on complaints from several resort owners, Anil Kumar had withstood the legal pressures in a commendable way, paving way for the smooth continuation of the mission. It was public secret that the local leadership of the party had tried to sabotage the action against the SN Tourist Resort in Munnar.
The High Court had suo moto initiated contempt of court proceedings against the owner and wife of the resort and had even summoned them to personally appear in the court. The proceedings in this case was to start in the High Court in the coming week and now the Government would have to find some other efficient lawyer to deal with that case.
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