THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In the over politicised atmosphere at the Indian Red Cross state headquarters, the employees are facing a tough time. They have been denied salary for the past five months. And four employees - caught in the crossfire between the government and the dissolved managing committee - have been transferred to far off districts citing the respective branches would pay them the pending salary.
Biju B, Latha Suresh, Nancy Prabhakar, Bobi Robinson and Arun G Rajan have been transferred to Kasargod, Kottayam, Ernakulam and Palakkad districts respectively. The Red Cross general secretary Chempazhanthi Anil issued an order also effecting the transfer of special grade driver Vinod V K and office assistant Rajesh O C to Kottayam and Kollam branches.
The order points out the government is repeatedly neglecting Kerala High Court and Supreme Court orders upholding their election, and it was impossible to pay the salary of the employees. As part of decentralisation, the employees were being transferred to the said districts and the respective district committees would pay their salaries.Public Relations Assistant Biju B told Express said they were not paid salary even during Onam, making life tough.“I have been working with the Red Cross for the past 20 years. Not only has the managing committee not paid salary for five months, it has also transferred me to Kasargod. To deny us the due salary, the managing committee has frozen the Society’s bank account,“ he said.
Committee has no power to order transfer: Administrator
Administrative Officer Radhakrishnan, in charge of the state headquarters, said the managing committee had no powers to issue an order transferring employees. Asked why the government had not paid salary to the employees for the past five months, he said the account had been frozen as the case was pending before the court.
“Since the case is still pending with the court, the Society could not have operated the account,” he said.Asked why there was no effort to find alternative means to pay the salary, he said he had taken over as administrator just a month back. Despite repeated attempts, District Collector K Vasuki - who was to act on the issue - did not respond to calls.
Apex court had ruled in our favour: Managing committee
The IRCS state branch has been under the Administrator’s rule since June 2017. Following complaints from CPM leaders, the managing committee led by V P Muralidharan (chairman) and Anil had been dissolved and the District Collector had taken control of the state headquarters.
The dissolved committee had then moved the Kerala High Court challenging the government stand. The HC Single Bench, Division Bench and the Supreme Court had, however, quashed the government action and upheld the election of the managing committee. But the government so far has not complied with the court orders.
Following this, the managing committee - claiming that the government has no powers to oust them and interfere in the affairs of the committee - instructed the Federal Bank, Pattoor, branch to freeze the account.“Since there is a dispute between the managing committee and the government, we asked the bank to freeze the account,” said Anil.“Ex-MLA Sivan Kutty and others allege we have made several financial irregularities. Since their government is in power, they can go ahead with any kind of probe.”
“But the dissolution of the committee is a different matter and the highest court in the country had ruled in our favour. As the government is not complying with the court order, we filed a contempt of court petition with the SC on October 4 and the case has been posted for October 23,” he said.