VS writes to party brass about unpaid salary
NEW DELHI: CPI(M) veteran VS Achuthanandan is not getting his salary despite holding a cabinet minister-rank in Kerala, signalling the latest tussle between the veteran communist and the party-led government.
VS, as he is popularly known in political circles, shot off a letter to the party’s leadership to complain and seek its intervention in the issue.
After the CPI(M)-led LDF returned to power in Kerala last year, the former chief minister was dropped from the cabinet as his arch rival Pinarayi Vijayan became the chief minister.
To placate VS, the only founder member of the party who is alive, party general secretary Sitaram Yechury intervened and got him a job as the chairman of the Kerala administrative reforms commission.
But ever since he became the chairman in last August, he did not get any salary. His office has five officials and they too did not receive any money.
“It is a technical issue to be resolved by the local administration. The party has nothing to do with it,” said a politburo member. Yechury indicated that since VS was appointed in the middle of the financial year, the annual budget probably didn’t have a sanction to meet expenses of the panel.
Though VS did not receive any salary for the past six months, he has been given an official accommodation and a car.
Sources said the files pertaining to VS’ salaries and other perks have gone back and forth between two state departments and both have claimed they are not the competent authority to start paying his emoluments.
VS and Vijayan were at loggerheads for many years. VS, the eternal rebel, lost his seat in the politburo and the central committee when Prakash Karat was the general secretary. Even as VS faced action on disciplinary grounds, he often raised voices against the Vijayan camp.