Chief Secretary will continue in post: CM

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:  Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has said that Chief Secretary P Prabhakaran will continue in the post in view of Union Shipping secretary the ‘reluctance’ of  K Mohandas to accept the Chief Secretary’s post citing lack of sufficient period left for him to take up such a post.Briefing the decisions of the cabinet meeting here on Wednesday, Chandy said a previous cabinet meeting had decided to appoint Mohandas as chief secretary and Prabhakaran as adviser.  Now, Prabhakaran will function as advisor only after the completion of his tenure as Chief Secretary.On the Mullaperiyar issue,  Chandy said the State Government’s stand that it had no problem in having a joint control mechanism for the distribution of water from the new dam to be built at Mullaperiyar, had increased the confidence of the empowered committee and the Centre in the state. However, he said  that Kerala had made it clear that it would be the sole custodian of the new dam.The State Government has no problem in allowing a third party (Centre) in the the distribution of Mullapperiyar water, he said.On the question with regard to ban on appointments, Chandy said those who had lost face in the PSC-Government standoff were behind this false campaign.  There is a standing order to initiate action against those officials who fail to report the vacancies to the PSC, he pointed out.He said that till November 30, 2011, around 40,000 vacancies were reported to the PSC. The PSC had sent advice memo for 19,000 posts so far. With the extension of PSC lists till April 30, other vacancies would also be filled.  He said the government has decided to hike the stipend of dental PG students. Stipends of `23,000, `24,000 and `25,000 will be given to first, second and third year students respectively.In Kozhikode city, in the second phase of the rehabilitation project called “Sparsham” 64 families would be rehabilitated. A sum of `3.5 crore had been sanctioned for the construction of the approach road to the Kothi bridge.A sum of `8 lakh has been sanctioned to meet the treatment expenses of Syamdas, a student who was injured during the Ernakulam district sports meet.