Thiruvananthapuram: Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala has said the 'salary order' asking government employees to sign a 'declaration of unwillingness' was an arbitrary decision taken by Finance Minister TM Thomas Isaac behind the back of the chief minister and also the state cabinet. “The order was issued without even the cabinet discussing it,” Chennithala told reporters here on Monday.
He wanted the cabinet that meets on Wednesday, September 19, to withdraw the clause, which he said had 'created unease in Kerala society.' There needs to be only a 'declaration of willingness,' Chennithala said. “The finance minister should also publicly admit that he had made a mistake by issuing such an order,” the opposition leader added.
Chennithala said chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan had only put forward a request, he had not forced any employee to contribute. “The chief minister's suggestion that employees could contribute their one-month salary in many installments had met with a positive response. No employee had spoken a word against this. This being the case, why did Isaac come out with such an order,” he asked. “The order is not in keeping with the sense of generosity that was driving the state's recovery efforts,” he added.
Chennithala said the government's handling of the salary issue fully destroyed the mood of selflessness the state had seen in the wake of the floods. “There would be perhaps no one in the state who had not held out their hands, in some way or the other, to those in distress, and contributed their mite to the rescue and relief efforts. It was this brotherhood in the time of crisis that had inspired the rest of the world to help Kerala in a big way,” Chennithala said.
What the salary order has effectively done was to divide employees into two groups; those willing to contribute and those who were not. Chennithala said that a witch-hunt would soon be unleashed. “The plan is to identify those who sign the declaration of unwillingness and brand them as enemies of the state,” Chennithala said. He said the finance minister's logic was that those who signed the unwillingness declaration would be embarrassed. “It looks as if the finance minister's job is to embarrass employees who work for the government,” he said.
Chennithala said the state government should realise that it were the government employees who would be leading the reconstruction efforts. “Are we attempting to rebuild Kerala by dividing the employees,” he asked.
“It is only natural that the government will have to secure the consent of those willing to pay. It is part of government procedure. The declaration of unwillingness should be done away with,” he said.