Save University Committee urges Vijayan to cancel Veena's Nomination

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Save University Campaign Committee has sent a letter to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan demanding cancellation of the nomination made to the Syndicate of the Sree Narayana Guru Open University of Reni Sebastian, whose Educational Consultation agency had allegedly paid money to his daughter Veena Vijayan’s IT firm Exalogic.

It comes close on the heels of the Corporate Affairs Ministry announcing a probe into alleged financial irregularities in Exalogic.

The Committee, in its letter to Vijayan, said that Sebastian is a director of Santa Monica, a educational consultancy firm here which sends large number of Kerala students to Universities abroad.

R. S. Sasikumar, who heads the Committee, said that, this consultancy firm was in the news when it was alleged that they had paid money to Veena and a few other firms.

“This nomination will be counterproductive to the state’s efforts of turning Kerala into a hub of education, which is your government’s vision. By inducting the director of such a firm, it will be giving undue importance to this firm,” said Sasikumar.

Sasikumar said he has sent the complaint to Vijayan because Sebastian has been nominated by the Vijayan government as a government nominee.

Reacting to this, State Higher Education Minister R Bindhu said Sebastian was selected because of her expertise, and she has no clue about other things.

State BJP president K. Surendran had last year given a list of private firms in Kerala which allegedly used to pay monthly amounts to Veena’s IT firm as they were under the radar of Kerala agencies, and among the list was Santa Monica also.

Surendran’s revelation came soon after a media report, quoting a report from the Income Tax Settlement Board claimed that Veena’s firm had received Rs 1.72 crore from CMRL – a mining company, for no services rendered and this issue is now being probed by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.