In what is a “revelation after ten years”, former Health Minister and MP PK Sreemathy cleared the air about the controversial appointment of her daughter-in-law as her personal staff during her tenure as minister in the period between 2006-2011.
Sreemathy’s Facebook post on Sunday comes at a time when allegations of nepotism within the government have surfaced after Industries Minister EP Jayarajan appointed his nephew and Sreemathy's son Sudheer Nambiar as the Managing Director of KSIE.
However, the former minister failed to address the latest controversy over her son’s appointment.
In 2006, Sreemathy appointed her daughter-in-law Dhanya Nair as a cook and nephew Jijinth Raj (EP Jayarajan's son) as a clerk in her personal staff.
In October that year, a day after Raj resigned from his post, her daughter-in-law was reappointed as clerk. Then a year later, Dhanya was once again promoted as a gazetted officer. Sreemathy was, however, forced to drop her daughter-in-law in 2008 after the appointment came under scrutiny.
In her Facebook post on Sunday, she writes that she remained silent at the time only to protect the reputation of the party.
“Appointing relatives as minister’s staff is not an isolated incident. The then party secretary had said that ministers can appoint three personal staff as per their discretion. This was a party decision. Following this, I appointed my daughter-in-law after due consultation,” she wrote.
Pinarayi Vijayan was the party secretary at the time.
“When staff members who were degree holders were upgraded, my personal staff were also upgraded. However, the decision to upgrade my daughter-in-law was not right,” Sreemathy added.
Refuting Sreemathy's claims, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Sunday that Sreemathy's decision to appoint her daughter-in-law in her personal staff was not known to the party.
"Generally, the ministers are given the discretion to appoint three personal staff members. One of the two drivers, a cook and another to attend phone calls. These appointments are purely made according to the ministers' discretion and not the party's decision. In fact, there is no need for the party to involve itself in these appointments. However, when Sreemathy promoted her daughter-in-law, the party intervened to call it off," Pinarayi Vijayan said.
Saying that the media had accused only her when the controversy surfaced, she said that her daughter-in-law resigned as per the party’s decision.
“Now the BJP is alleging that my daughter-in-law enjoys pension benefits, which is not true. I want to clarify that she has not even applied for pension,” Sreemathy wrote.
However, she has since withdrawn the Facebook post.