THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: As many as 134 contractual staff, including 118 women, employed under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM) of Kudumbashree Mission have lost their jobs after the government decided against renewing their contract that expired on June 30.
They are the first big set of employees to be terminated under the UDF government. The mass termination has triggered allegations from the Opposition, which termed it politically motivated.
The affected staff members include four state mission managers, 20 city mission managers, 89 community organisers, 20 multi-task personnel and one mission executive. They were relieved on Tuesday following an order issued by the Kudumbashree executive director. Nine of them are above the age of 50, while 58 are aged between 40 and 50, and 64 are between ages 30 and 40.
While their contracts that expired on March 31 were extended till June 30, they have not been renewed again. The contracts of the other employees were earlier extended only up to September 30.
Finding another job will be difficult, particularly for the older staff, said the employees. Around 50 of them are the sole earning members of their families, they added.
DAY-NULM has been implemented through Kudumbashree in the state since 2015 to address urban poverty by strengthening community organisations, extending financial assistance, supporting self-employment and entrepreneurship, providing assistance to street vendors and operating shelters for homeless persons. The programme is currently transitioning to the Deendayal Jan Aajeevika-Shehari, the second phase of the mission.
“Though the Union government had informed states that contractual staff under DAY-NULM can be retained during the transition period, the direction was withdrawn and revised to permit payment only for June,” alleged one of the terminated employees.
Meanwhile, the LDF alleged that non-renewal of the contracts was politically motivated and intended to replace existing contractual staff with supporters of the ruling UDF. It also apprehended similar action against contractual employees in other departments.
The government has neither responded to the allegations nor officially stated the reason for not renewing contracts beyond June 30.
