Governor Arif Mohammed Khan has cleared the draft Ordinances forwarded by the government for deferring six days’ salary of teachers and employees for five months and on shelving the delimitation of local body wards in the wake of the crisis triggered by COVID-19.
The Ordinance on salary deferment was necessitated following a stay order issued by the High Court on the government decision to defer the salary. The stay for two months was issued on the premise that it lacked legal sanction. The Ordinance has now given legal sanction to the government to deduct the salary.
Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac clarified here on Thursday that the impediment for deducting the salary had been cleared with the Governor signing the Ordinance and disbursal will commence on May 4.
The government was not on a collision course with the employees and teachers, but was forced to take the decision in the wake of the grave crisis. The deferred salary would be retained in a separate account and would be used only for virus containment efforts and not routed to the Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund, he said.
Referring to the United Democratic Front (UDF) allegation that the government did not take the Opposition into confidence, Dr. Isaac said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had broached the proposal for `Salary Challenge’ with them but to no avail and hence had to go ahead.
Delimitation
The Ordinance to amend the Kerala Panchayati Raj Act and the Kerala Municipalities Act to relinquish delimitation of wards before the local body elections in October was also approved by Mr. Khan. Earlier, the government had amended the Acts to delimit the wards and it was decided to add one more ward each to the rural and urban local bodies.
The Ordinance will now empower the government to conduct the elections on the basis of the existing wards. The government had constituted the delimitation commission and preliminary procedures were progressing for redrawing the boundaries.
The government dropped the decision following the COVID-19 outbreak. Since local body secretaries, who hold the key to the delimitation procedures, have been tasked with COVID-19 containment activities, the government has decided to shelve the process. Now, it has got the consent of the Governor too.
