THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has picked the right team for his office comprising a senior IAS officer with impeccable integrity, another proactive bureaucrat, a young party leader as political secretary besides a veteran journalist to handle the ever-inquisitive media.
The choice of a watchful, alert and meticulous officer like additional chief secretary Nalini Netto as principal secretary is set to provide the protective shield around the chief minister’s office which was often in the news for wrong reasons during the last five years. She will continue to hold her existing responsibilities of home and vigilance, the portfolios held by the chief minister.
Ms Netto has worked with Mr Vijayan for nearly three years when the latter was the cooperation minister and she was the registrar-cooperative societies. Those who have worked with Mr Vijayan find him straight forward and someone who is very particular about punctuality.
For secretary P Sivasankar, it is first posting with the chief minister. He will be mainly concentrating on the IT, another important portfolio which was with the Industries minister during UDF time and now with the chief minister. In Puthalath Dinesan, the chief minister has a political secretary who has been associated with the party headquarters AKG Centre and groomed as an ideologue for a long period.
Since the chief minister and his office are under media glare 24/7, Mr Prabha Varma is seen as the right man for the post of media advisor. He has served in same capacity with E K Nayanar during his stint between 1996 and 2001. The chief minister has already stated that he would not like to have the kind of transparency that Oommen Chandy boasted about by installing webcams in the chief minister’s office. Many say the cameras are out of the chief minister’s office for good.
Even the entry of visitors is going to be restricted and it will not be a free-for-all situation that prevailed in the previous regime. The new chief minister and his government believe in decentralisation of powers and want the grievances of people redressed at various levels.
The instruction to ministers to work at least for five days a week from their offices is an indication that works of people which could be dealt with at the department level need not come to the chief minister. It now remains to be seen whether the team will rise up to the expectations and deliver.
