By IANS
Thiruvananthapuram : The Congress led opposition Wednesday demanded the resignation of Law Minister M. Vijayakumar after two newspapers carried highlights of the governor’s address to the Kerala Assembly before it was read out in the assembly.
The resignation of Law Secretary P.S. Gopinathan has also been sought.
Talking to reporters after Kerala Governor R.L. Bhatia read out the V.S. Achuthanandan government’s policy, leader of the opposition Oommen Chandy said the leak was a serious offence.
“Barring one item in the address, the two vernacular newspapers Wednesday have carried the government’s policies. This is sad because the state government just cannot keep things under wraps. This leakage is a serious lapse,” said Chandy.
Former law minister and chief of Kerala Congress (Mani) K.M. Mani said an assembly committee should inquire into the matter.
“Both the law minister and the law secretary should step down because of this lapse. The practice is that once the cabinet approves the address, the English version goes to the governor and the law department has the responsibility to translate the same. This is also an issue of privilege. Never before has this happened in our state,” said Mani.
As soon as the governor stood up to read out the address, the opposition was on its feet with placards saying that it had been leaked.
“We expressed our protest in the most democratic manner,” said Chandy.