Employees’ organisations at the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) are crying foul over a recent KWA board decision to hand over the water bottling plant at Aruvikkara to Kerala Irrigation Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd. (KIIDC).
The CITU-backed KWA Employees’ Union has demanded that the management reconsider the decision. The union has announced a two-day sit-in outside Jala Bhavan, the KWA headquarters here, on October 10 and 11. The union also plans to take out a protest march to Jala Bhavan on November 6.
“The plant was established at Aruvikkara weathering attempts to scuttle it, reportedly by the private water lobby,” M. Thampan, State general secretary of the union, said.
In a letter to Water Resources Minister K. Krishnankutty, The AITUC-backed All KWA Employees’ Union urged the State government to retain the plant with KWA. “It should not be forgotten that the project was aimed at generating revenue for the cash-strapped KWA,” M.M. George, working president of the AITUC union, said.
The Association of Kerala Water Authority Officers (AKWAO) has suggested an alternative.
“Since the KWA lacks an extensive marketing and distribution facility at present, the distribution can be entrusted temporarily — for a period of two years — with agencies such as Milma or KIIDC” AKWAO State president R.V. Santhosh Kumar said.
