KOCHI: Bogged down by financial crisis, the Kerala Kalamandalam, the Deemed to be University of Art and Culture under Kerala government, issued an order to discontinue the service of around 130 temporary employees, including teachers, hostel wardens, drivers and cooks.
The order issued by Kalamandalam registrar on Saturday said the service of temporary employees will remain suspended from December 1, 2024 until further orders.
Responding to the news, Cultural Affairs Minister Saji Cherian told TNIE that he has given instruction to the varsity registrar to withdraw the order immediately.
“The government will look into the grievances of the university and try to solve the issue. Retrenchment of employees is not the policy of the government, and we will address the issues faced by the university,” he said.
Though Registrar P Rajesh Kumar and Vice Chancellor B Ananthakrishnan were unavailable for comments, a senior officer said the university was forced to retrench the temporary employees as the institution was not receiving adequate non-plan funds for distribution of salary.
The university has a sanctioned strength of 150, including teachers, and needs Rs 90 lakh per month for salary distribution. But the government was providing only Rs 40 lakh to Rs 50 lakh per month for the past two years.
“Last year the distribution of salary was delayed by 75 days after which the administration made arrangements to provide the salary in the same month itself. A liaison officer was appointed to take up the financial issues with the government. Now the salary is being distributed by the end of the month. Employees who have taken loans are struggling to pay the installments on time,” said a teaching staffer.
“The non-plan fund of Kalamandalam is Rs 7.75 crore and the sanctioned staff strength is 150. But the staff strength was fixed in 1981 when Kalamandalam was conducting only diploma courses. If the temporary employees are retrenched, the functioning of the school will be affected as there are only three permanent teachers,” said V S Arunkumar, a temporary worker.
The functioning of the students’ hostel and mess will be affected as all the employees are temporary workers. There are 11 security staffers and 19 sweepers apart from drivers and office staff,” he added.
“The government provided Rs 27 crore to Kerala University this month. Malayalam University with a staff strength of 40 has a non-plan fund of Rs 5.5 crore and they are getting Rs 80 lakh per month,” said Anilkumar, another staffer who received retrenchment order.