PATHANAMTHITTA: The Pathanamthitta district police chief failed to attend the road safety meeting inviting the ire of the district collector. The district police chief assigned the association leader SI to attend the function instead. District Collector Prem Krishnan S expressed displeasure and was not ready to buy the reasons for the district police chief’s absence from such an important meeting. This resulted in the collector sending back the SI from the meeting.

District-level road safety review meeting was held on Wednesday. The district police chief did not participate in the meeting where important decisions were to be taken, including the allocation of lakhs of funds.

Collector Prem Krishnan grabbed headlines some months back for his repartee over students demanding holiday considering the incessant rains in Kerala. The incident happened last July. The collector tracked down two accounts of students who hurled expletives for not allowing holidays through social media. He then called their parents and warned them of the consequences.

The collector revealed that he received disparaging messages on Facebook from students over not declaring a holiday.