Finance Minister K.M. Mani on Friday said the government had put in motion all measures required to ensure that its employees and the people of the State could celebrate Onam festival without any hassle this time.
In a press release, he said the Finance Department had sanctioned the release of Rs.4,650 crore for defraying the expenses involved in market intervention measures during the Onam days, paying bonus and other festival benefits to government employees and clearing all the payments due to the welfare pensioners.
The government sanctioned Rs.13.61 crores for giving an ‘Onakkodi’ each to all the women who were participating in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. Various labour welfare fund boards would receive Rs.143.59 crores for paying pension dues to their members. Mr. Mani said his department had released for the purpose of pensions a sum of Rs.11.78 crore more than the actual allocation made in the Budget.
Supplyco (fair price outlets of the Kerala State Civil Supplies Department) had been sanctioned Rs.25 crores in addition to Rs.60 crore allocated to it in the Budget. The Consumerfed (fair price outlets of Kerala State Co-operatives Consumers Federation Ltd) would likewise receive Rs.45 crores in addition to the Budget allocation of Rs.10 crore given to it. And Kerala State Horticultural Products Development Corporation, which runs a network of vegetable sales outlets in the State, would receive Rs.10 crore in excess of the Budget allocation of Rs.5 crore given to it, Mr. Mani said.
