Kerala Minister Radhakrishnan quits; signs historic order before resigning

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Minister K Radhakrishnan, who has been elected to the Lok Sabha, resigned from Pinarayi Vijayan's Cabinet on Tuesday, but not before issuing a landmark order to remove colonial names for places where people belonging to SC/ST communities live.

Radhakrishnan, who held the Devaswom, Welfare of SC, ST and Backward Classes and Parliamentary Affairs portfolios, handed over his resignation to Chief Minister Vijayan at his official residence here.

His resignation as MLA was handed over to Speaker A N Shamseer later.

Before resigning, the Left leader, in his capacity as minister, issued a significant order in which he directed not to use the words "colony", "sanketham" and "ooru" to describe the places predominantly inhabited by families belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

The order said such words evoke disrespect, so new names in accordance with time are appropriate.

Instead of such words, new names like "nagar," "unnathi" and "prakriti" should be used to describe such areas. The order said that names of regional interest in respective areas can also be used.

Radhakrishnan later told reporters that discussions had been going on in this regard for some time, and finally a decision has been taken to abolish the practice of using such words.

"The word colony is a symbol of colonial slavery. So, the usage should be abolished," he said.

After handing over his resignation, Radhakrishnan also said that he was stepping down with great satisfaction.

A central committee member of the CPI(M), he also said he tried to do maximum service for the people in his capacity as a minister. Radhakrishnan had won from Alathur Parliamentary constituency by a margin of 20,111 votes in the April 26 LS polls.

He is the lone ruling Left candidate in Kerala to have emerged victorious in the Lok Sabha polls.