Thiruvananthapuram, July 24 (BPNS)
AICC general secretary, organization, and former member of parliament from Alappuzha, K.C. Venugopal lashed out against the posting of Sreeram Venkataraman IAS as the district collector of Kerala.
The senior Congress leader who was a former Union minister and minister in Kerala said that posting Sriram Venkataraman who is a ‘tainted’ officer being posted in a district like Alappuzha was indeed disappointing.
Interacting with media persons at Kozhikode where he is participating in the two-day ‘Chintan Shivir’, Venugopal said that Sreeram Venkitaraman is an accused in a drunken driving case wherein he had lost control of his car and rammed into a journalist who was on the side of a road in Thiruvananthapuram killing him instantly.
It may be noted that the Thiruvananthapuram bureau chief of ‘ Siraj ‘newspaper, K.M. Basheer was killed by a car that rammed into him in the wee hours of August 4, 2018, and found that it was Sreeram Venkitaraman who was at the wheel.
There were several allegations of police and bureaucratic high-handedness to clear Sreeram of the charges and even though the court sentenced him to judicial custody, the powerful bureaucratic lobby saved him, and was admitted to a hospital citing serious medical condition.
The Congress has come out strongly against the posting of Sreeram Venkitaraman as the Alappuzha district collector with the former MLA and former President of Alappuzha DCC, A.M. Shukoor strongly opposing the posting. He said that Sreeram was a tainted person and his posting in Alappuzha as district collector was not acceptable.
Shukoor while speaking to BPNS said, “We are contemplating on an agitation against this posting and the government must not have posted him as a district collector which would give a wrong message to the general public.”
Senior Congress leader and former Home Minister, Ramesh Chennithala also lashed out against the appointment of Sreeram Venkitaraman as Alapuzha district collector. Speaking to BPNS the senior leader who is an MLA from Haripad in Alappuzha district said, “Government must immediately reconsider the decision. Why such a controversial bureaucrat is foisted on the people of Alappuzha.”
