KANNUR: The response from most of the government employees to the ‘salary challenge’ campaign of the government has been positive, said Industries Minister EP Jayarajan.
While inaugurating the distribution of various benefits and gold medals for the winners in the SSLC Examination organised by the Kerala Handloom Workers Welfare Fund Board here on Saturday, Jayarajan said the government’s plea for giving one month’s salary in instalments for those who cannot give it at one go was received with open hands by most of the employees. Those who do not feel like contributing when the state is facing a severe crisis should be left alone, he said.
The reason for the disaster is not the opening up of dams, minister said. The dams were opened only when the water that flowed into the dams breached the capacity. If that was not done, the disaster would have been greater as many dams would have broken. The government had done whatever it could to mitigate the damage, he said. It was the government, which had called for the help of fishermen during the crisis and they duly obliged. By distributing preventive medicines in flood-hit regions on time, the government was able to control the spread of contagious diseases, the minister said.
The state’s handloom, the quality of which makes it suitable to be worn in any climate, is one of the most-accepted universal brands, said Jayarajan. But, sadly, the industry is having a tough time recently. Youngsters are not coming to the field anymore. The existing employees are leaving the industry to seek other job opportunities. Most of the existing employees are women, he said. The government is committed to protecting the handloom sector and will do everything to revive the industry, he said. The government will rectify the deficiencies in the operation of Hanveev and Hantex, to make the sector strong.
Kerala handloom workers welfare fund board is doing a very good job. There are some bad tendencies prevailing in the industry and they should be curtailed effectively, said Jayarajan. Strong action will be taken in this regard, he said. Kerala handloom workers welfare fund board chairman Arakkan Balan presided over.
The Board gave its second instalment of relief amount, Rs 1,93,115 , to the CMDRF. It had given Rs 4,62,089 on August 30 as the first instalment. One month’s honorarium of the chairman was also given to the CMDRF during the function. Children of handloom workers, who scored high marks in the SSLC examination were given gold medals and certificates. The minister also gave away various benefits for the handloom employees in the function. Hanveev chairman K P Sahadevan, Hantex president Peringamala Vijayan, CEO N Baby Castro, K V Santhosh Kumar and other representatives of employees’ unions and board members attended the function.