V S Achuthanandan to quit as Kerala reforms panel chairman citing health reasons

Citing health reasons, veteran CPM leader and former Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan will step down from the Kerala Administrative Reforms Commission chairperson post at the age of 97.

Achuthanandan said in a statement that since he was suffering from brain haemorrhage and under the strict advice of doctors he could not discharge his duties. Hence he was resigning from the commission chairperson post on January 31.

While there were criticisms that the commission was a wastage of public money, in his statement announcing the decision to resign from the post by January 31 Achuthanandan said that so far eleven reports of the commission were submitted to the government and two more would be submitted soon. The value of the money spent on the commission would depend on the follow-up actions being taken by the government for implementing the recommendations of the commission. The commission prepared the reports by holding a series of discussions, he said.

There were allegations that the commission reports were not being implemented by the government, which included measures like setting up a State Vigilance Commission.

Achuthanandan was appointed as the committee chairperson in 2016 soon after Pinarayi Vijayan was sworn in a Chief Minister of Kerala. It was widely considered as a favour to Achuthanandan for not raising any objections against Vijayan being elevated to the CM post, especially citing the SNC Lavalin corruption allegation Vijayan.

Achuthanandan is still MLA of Malampuzha in Palakkad. His present moves are being considered as retirement from parliamentary politics also.