K Alphons has been appointed as the new Tourism Minister (I/C) of the Govt of India. A 1979-batch former Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, Alphons is known as demolition man for demolishing more than 14,000 illegal buildings in Delhi and reclaiming land worth more than Rs 10,000 crore during his term as Delhi Development Authority (DDA) commissioner in the 90s. He has also been given the charge of Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology.
Kannanthanam began his political career by becoming an independent MLA with the support of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) in Kerala in 2006. He, later, joined the BJP in 2011.
Recently, he was appointed as one of the members of a committee for drafting the national education policy under eminent space scientist K Kasturirangan.
