P. J. Joseph

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

P J Joseph

Constituency	Thodupuzha

Political party	Kerala Congress (J)
Spouse	Dr. Santha
Children	Three sons and one daughter
Residence	Thodupuzha, Kerala
Religion	Roman Catholic

P J Joseph is an Indian politician, the leader of the Kerala Congress (J) party in Kerala, and an MLA, representing the Thodupuzha assembly constituency. Since 1990 his party has been part of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) as an alliance. He has also held various ministerial positions with the Government of Kerala on several occasions.

1 Early life
2 Contributions
3 Controversy
4 Current position
5 References
6 Further reading

[edit] Early life

This section does not cite any references or sources. (June 2008)
Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

He is married to Dr. Santha, a gynecologist, and has four children. He is a postgraduate in Economics from Loyola college Madras, and a landlord himself, promotes agriculture using organic methods and progressive concepts in the state. His own farms have been organically cultivated since the early eighties. He was first elected to the Kerala Legislative Assembly in 1970. He organizes the annual Agricultural festival in Thodupuzha since 1989. The fest of 2005 was inaugurated by former President of India, Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam, and got special appreciation.

[edit] Contributions

He is a visionary par excellence devising innovative technique for the comprehensive development of Kerala. He was the pioneer in propagating organic farming in the state, revamping the primary and higher secondary education in Kerala, waste management for a clean Kerala, integrated development in IT Industry, revolutionary road laying and maintenance works, rail network and sustainable growth for rural farmers. One of the crucial advantages that emerged from the introduction of his controversial education policies was the steep rise in the pass percentage of the SSLC students from 70.06 to 82.29 per cent. ^[1]

He successfully instituted the Gandhi Studies Center and the Gandhi Center for Sustainable Development. The former is a registered non governmental organization committed to the development and empowerment of the marginalized section including farmers, unemployed, women, and children from the backward communities etc., irrespective of their caste, creed and political affiliations. The latter concentrates on training and research for Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Rural Development. ^[2] ^[3]

[edit] Controversy

P.J Joseph resigned from the Kerala Cabinet on 4 November 2006 as he was accused of misbehaviour with a lady co-passenger on a Kingfisher flight. The lady's husband had complained that Joseph grabbed his wife from behind once the cabin lights were switched off during the flight's take off from Chennai International Airport on 3 August 2006. The flight was enroute to Cochin International Airport.

Following the allegation, the State Police Department had investigated, and in the previous month, the Deputy Inspector General of police B. Sandhya had filed a report on the allegations. He was then asked to resign by V S Achuthanandan, the Chief Minister of Kerala based on the report. ^[4]

He resigned saying he would not like to continue even under a shadow of suspicion. He attributed the allegation to a political vendetta by his detractors in the opposition MLA groups, who had been expelled from his party and persons "who had tried to criticize" him in connection with alleged irregularities in the implementation of a Housing Scheme for registrations called “Maitri” by his ministerial term during 1996-2001. ^[5] ^[6]

He was also accused of possessing acres of land illegally. The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau has been ordered to conduct a preliminary inquiry into the allegation. ^[7]

T U Kuruvilla, a MLA of his party sworn in as the minister in place of Joseph. Later Kuruvilla also resigned following a series of allegations of irregularities in a land deal involving his family. Consequently the party, nominated Monce Joseph as its new ministerial candidate in place of T U Kuruvilla and the former had sworn in. ^[8]

[edit] Current position

Since leaving power, P J Joseph has worked on the campaign to create a high speed rail corridor between Kanyakumari and Goa. Laloo Prasad Yadav, the Indian Railway Minister, has agreed to conduct a survey and study for the project. It is expected that the line will reduce the travel time to Kerala drastically, bringing more tourists, goods and services to the state and back. ^[9] ^[10]