Thiruvananthapuram: As many as 228 secretariat employees expressed their disagreement to the salary challenge till Thursday. As per the government order, if an employee did not want to make contributions of one month salary to the Chief Minister's Distress Relief Fund, they could file a declaration to that effect.
Among those who have conveyed their decision to stay away, 150 are from public administration department, 70 from finance secretariat and eight from law department, said sources. The total number of staff in the secretariat is 4700.
Only one more working day remains for the employees to express their no consent. Thursday was a holiday. So is Friday. Though opposition unions claimed that 40 per cent of people from all over Kerala would stay away, government and ruling party unions are determined to ensure that maximum number of people to donate their salary.
For ensuring this, cooperative societies came up with generous loan schemes. The Secretariat Staff Co-operative Society has already announced a loan scheme with six per cent interest that can be repaid in 40 instalments to those who donate one-month salary.
Employees Co-operative Society in Kerala University headquarters has announced Rs 1 lakh loan without interest repayable in eight instalments.
Meanwhile, the Kerala Administrative Tribunal (KAT) on Wednesday declined to stay the government order requiring government employees to salary challenge order while considering a petition filed by the NGO Sangh, after government pleader submitted that it did not compel them. The tribunal adjourned the hearing on the petition by two weeks for the government to file a statement in response to the complaint.
