Chief Minister freezes order on creative expression by employees

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Monday froze an order on creative expression issued by the Personnel and Administrative Reforms Department recently.

As the order attracted much criticism, the Chief Minister asked Chief Secretary Jiji Thomson to look into the matter.

The order specifies that employees who wish to publish a book shall give in writing to the government the details of the publisher and the name of the person who writes the preface, besides even the price of the book. The order also makes it mandatory for the employee to give an affidavit stating that there will be no anti-national content and criticism of government's policies in the book.

Curbs have also been laid on publishing of essays, writing research papers and participating in news and feature programmes in television channels, private radio stations, game shows, film programmes, televised sports competitions and amateur drama.

Prior clearance will also have to be sought for reading news or participating in television debates other than those on Doordarshan and Akashvani.