A verdict that is bound to shake the LDF

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The crucial verdict of the Lok Ayuktha in the Kerala University assistants examination muddle is bound to shake the LDF, as it is a big jolt to the former government led by V S Achuthanandan.The Lok Ayuktha had quashed all the appointments made in 2008 to the assistant-grade posts on Thursday and Justice G Sashidharan recommended action against then Vice-Chancellor M K Ramachandran Nair, Pro-Vice-Chancellor V Jayaprakash and four members of the University Syndicate. The court had also ordered cancellation of all appointments and conduct a fresh examination.During the reign of V S Achuthanandan as Chief Minister, the Congress had raised this as a major corruption case and had on numerous occasions disrupted the Assembly proceedings over the issue. The case was filed by Sujith S Kurup, then Senate member and KSU leader, with the Upa Lok Ayuktha pointing out that large-scale corruption had taken place in the University at the instance of Left parties and their feeder organisations.Though the test for appointments was conducted during the Congress-led government’s tenure in 2005, the rank-list was prepared during the  Achuthanandan Government’s tenure and appointments were made subsequently.  181 were posted out of the notified 200 posts and the Congress and other parties in the Opposition cried foul and alleged that more than one-third  of them were either Left party followers or their nominees.The Upa Lok Ayuktha in 2008 had asked the officials of the Kerala University to produce the nearly 40,000 answer sheets of the entrance examination but the latter failed to produce it in a fool-proof manner. Soon after the controversy broke out in 2008, the varsity cut a sorry figure after its two-member team was sent to a high-security printing press in Uttar Pradesh to find out the answer sheets, though the evaluation itself was admittedly over and the same was supposed to be in the custody of the varsity.  The Lok Ayuktha asked for the cancellation of the rank-list at the outset of the case itself, but the aggrieved parties approached the Kerala High Court. Though a stay was sought, the court constituted a committee to go through the case.  The court also asked the Lok Ayuktha to look into the case afresh. An inquiry commission headed by retired District Judge N Sukumaran had also found many of the accused guilty in the scam in its report submitted on December 10, 2010.