Aparna Jha
The chief vigilance commissioner of India came into light after being accused in the illegal import of palmolein oil from Malaysia. He imported this oil from Malaysia during his tenure as the Kerala civil supplies secretary in 1991-92. The case is still pending in the court of enquiry commissioner and special judge (vigilance) in Tiruvananthpuram. Thomas is the eighth accused in the case of illegal export of the said oil.
The controversial import of 15,000tonnes of pamolein from Malaysia took place in october1991 to April 1992 in the tenure of the then CM of Kerala, K Karunakaran. The deal was signed without any sanction of the center i.e. any import deal can be done after the intervention or dsy the approval of the center but this rule was also violated. The conspiracy done by the Chennai based mala trading company, and the Malaysian firm, PEL caused a total loss of Rs2.84 crore to the state exchequer.
In the year 1992, Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) found some fault with the import of the palmolein oil done in the year 1991-92. The Vigilance and Anti Corruption Bureau (VACB) started a probe in the year 1996 and filed charge sheet against Thomas, Karunakaran and the six other in the year of 1999. But the accused appeared in the court and got a bail on April 3 and 9, 2003. The congress government moved to Supreme Court to withdraw the case in the year 2005, but couludnt do so. The then CM K Karunakaran went to the Supreme Court to get stay and got the stay from the SC in the year 2007 and is on stay till now.
PJ Thomas was appointed as the CVC by a committee constituting of the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, opposition leader Sushma Swaraj and the home minister P Chidambaram in September 2010. Though the leader opposition was in the committee and the CVC was selected with her consent only but the opposition party BJP boycotted the oath ceremony, giving the plea that the opposition leader supported the appointment expecting the president will intervene. CVC was established in the year 1964 after the recommendations of the Shantaram committee.
About PJ Thomas
PJ Thomas- Polayil Joseph Thomas, assumed the post of the CVC on September, 2010 as the 14th CVC of India as the successor to the Pratyush Sinha, a 1969 batch IAS officer of the Bihar cadre, who took over as the CVC in the year 2006. Thomas hails from Alappuza and is a 1973 batch IAS officer of Kerala cadre. His brother, Johney Joseph is also an IAS of 1972 batch.
He (PJ Thomas) started his career as sub collector at fort Kochi. He has enjoyed several prestigious government posts like, finance secretary, chief electoral officer etc. He was the founder and also the director of ‘IIM Kozhikode’ for six months. He became the chief secretary of Kerala in the year 2007 and moved to central government in January 2009 as the secretary in the ministry of the parliamentary affairs. Also he was the secretary, when the 3G spectrums were being sold.
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