Thiruvananthapuram: The red tape in the higher echelons of the Kerala government has been exposed once again despite claims of speedy clearance of files.
The Kerala government took nearly five months to accept the resignation of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's former economic advisor Gita Gopinath.
Gita had resigned on October 10, 2018, after she was appointed as the chief economist with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Curiously, the resignation was accepted on March 8 this year, but with effect from December 31, 2018.
The professor and head of the Economics department of at the Harvard University was appointed chief minister’s advisor in July 2016. She refused to be paid for the advisory job. She wrote to the government asking to be relieved of duties since the job at IMF, which was offered in September, had to be taken up from January 1, 2019.
However, neither was the resignation accepted by the Kerala government nor an order issued relieving her of duties.
It seems there has been inordinate delay in processing the files in this regard. Finally public relations principal secretary Biswanath Sinha responded to Gita on March 8.
Interestingly, the recent resignations of chief minister’s private secretary MV Jayarajan and chief principle secretary Nalini Netto were accepted outright and orders issued instantly.