Thiruvananthapuram: The state government has to pay the city corporation up to Rs 72 crore, which the civic body has given as pension to its retired employees. For years now, the government has not been paying this amount to various corporations and municipalities. Every year the corporation pays around Rs 1.5 crore as pension from its own fund, which is getting depleted. It is learnt that the civic body has for many months stopped giving the pension contribution, which is 15 per cent of the basic pay.
The civic body has been sending representation to the state government and the last such representation was sent around three months ago. However, there has been no response from the urban affairs directorate, according to officials. Mayor V.K. Prasanth said that the state will repay the amount soon. However, the government has not issued any assurance regarding this.
Corporation officials say that all over Kerala the government will have to give at least Rs 400 crore to various corporations and municipalities. If the urban local bodies (ULB) do not have sufficient funds, they would send back the pensioners empty-handed, according to them. They contend that the corporation is able to spend close to '2.5 crore as pension (adding the pension of contingent workers).
