THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: PWD assistant executive engineer Balavinayagam has been suspended from service for “spreading defamatory messages against the Chief Minister and the home department, and by extension the state government, through the social media.” The suspension has been served following a directive by PWD minister G Sudhakaran. The suspension order issued by the PWD on Monday stated that Mr Balavinayagam had flouted government service rules that mandate that a government official should not campaign against the state government through the media and should demonstrate political neutrality.
“He has violated section 60(A) of Government Service Conduct Rules,” the order said. Mr Balavinayagam will not be entitled to sustenance allowance during the period suspension, the order added. Mr Balavinayagam, who worked in the PWD Building Section at Nedumangad near here, had shared two trolls that ridiculed Pinarayi Vijayan's handling of the Home Department. The LDF government’s move is not unprecedented. The former UDF government had gone on a suspension spree when the solar scam broke out in 2013.
In 2013 Premanand, an office attendant at the Secretariat was suspended from service for liking a cartoon criticizing Oommen Chandy in the solar scam. Chandraprasad, a legal assistant in the Law Department, too was suspended for the same crime, for ‘liking’ another Facebook post that poked fun at the then Chief Minister in the solar scam. A deputy chief engineer of KSEB, R Suku, was also suspended. Suku gave an allegedly derogatory caption for a picture that shows Oommen Chandy and his former personal assistant Tenny Joppan astride a bicycle.
