KOLLAM: Kerala State Cashew Development Corporation chairman S. Jayamohan has rubbished the allegations of corruption of over Rs 10 crore in the corporation raised by Mr V.D. Satheesan MLA and said the MLA was trying to protect the interests of private cashew companies. “A private sector lobby has influenced Satheesan to evade the payment of bonus and decent salaries to its employees. He also wants to protect the corrupt employees in the corporation who are facing a CBI probe,” Mr. Jayamohan alleged.
“The business done in the first 75 days of the functioning of the factories under KSCDC and Capex was better than that during the UDF rule. The private managements will be forced to give salaries and bonus to over 2.5 lakh employees as per the industries relationship committee (IRC) order if the state -owned factories become a role model with maximum days of employment and wages. They wish to demoralise the government companies so that they can evade payment of remuneration to their employees,” he added. The corporation had to purchase raw cashew for higher bid due to issues with the e-tender process as many of the EMDs by the companies that participated in the tender were not approved by the system, he said. “Our deal is transparent and the turnout of cashew now is higher with 22 kg per bag, while earlier it was just 17 kg. A decrease in half a kg implies a loss of Rs 37 lakh to the company,” Mr. Jayamohan pointed out.
The KSCDC has given a total of 75 working days till now and has raw material stock for 15 more days. The corporation aims to provide 100 working days during the first stretch and is e-tendering to purchase raw cashew kernels. “For the two tenders floated recently, there were no bidders. The third one is about to open in the coming days. We have made a profit of Rs 5 lakh as of now,” he added. He alleged that Mr. Satheesan was least concerned about the private factories that remain closed and had not given their employees Rs. 9, 200 as bonus and advance as decided by the IRC.
