Kerala CM hosts dinner for cabinet and top officers

Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 4 (IANS) Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan hosted dinner for his cabinet colleagues and top government officers and their families at his official residence on Wednesday night but kept the media away.

The only absentee at the dinner meeting was Ports Minister Kadanapally Ramachandran.

Vijayan started off the evening with a cabinet meeting, followed by screening of a documentary and then there was some 'selfie' time. Later dinner was served.

The three-hour get-together ended around 10 p.m.

Vijayan, who became the first Chief Minister in the state to break the decades-old convention of holding weekly briefings post-cabinet meeting, has decided that from now on every month the families of his cabinet ministers will meet over dinner.

Sources say the September family get-together would take place at the residence of Finance Minister Thomas Issac. Vijayan expects that such meetings will help the ministers have a better bonding and do away with any friction.