THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Travancore Devaswom Employees Front (TDEF) has protested against the delay in payment of salaries to employees of the Travancore Devaswom Board (TBD), even after May 5, citing the non-implementation of the SPARK (Service and Payroll Administrative Repository of Kerala) system.
The front alleged that withholding salaries at a time when a new government is being formed raises suspicion. It pointed out that a similar situation had occurred last year when salaries were delayed in the name of SPARK, following which the Employees Front approached the High Court. Based on the intervention, the TDB had promised that the system would be implemented only after completing all necessary preparations.
However, the front said that the board has violated those promises and once again withheld salaries, which cannot be justified. It also alleged that despite repeatedly highlighting several shortcomings in the SPARK system, no efforts were made to address them or to provide adequate training to employees. Instead, the system was being imposed on employees, allegedly to serve vested interests of certain officials, leaving ordinary employees to suffer without payment being accounted to.
Leaders of the organisation met board president K Jayakumar and the Devaswom Commissioner in protest and submitted a memorandum detailing the deficiencies in the SPARK system currently implemented in the board.
The leaders warned that the Employees Front would proceed with legal action to prevent such issues from recurring.
The protest meeting was inaugurated by state president P R Sreesankar and addressed by state leaders, including Neyyattinkara Praveen, Kollam Sunil, Shyamkumar Anappara, Vineeth Mavelikkara, Varkala Vishnu, Biju V Nath, Suresh Attingal, Sunil Mavelikkara, Kollam Venugopal, Kallayam Rajesh, Deepan Kandal, Sindhya and Rinju.