The Hindu : Kerala News : Opposition walkout over pay curb order

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Wednesday, Feb 09, 2005

Kerala

Kerala

Opposition walkout over pay curb order

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHPAPURAM, FEB. 8. The Opposition LDF members staged a walkout from the Assembly today in protest against the Government Order stipulating that salaries of State employees should be paid from the budget allocation for the departments concerned.

The Opposition alleged that the GO had been issued at the behest of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and pointed out that similar curbs had not been enforced in the case of other Government expenditure. They claimed that the order was violative of the Treasury Code.

However, the Finance Minister, Vakkom Purushothaman, pointed out that the Government had only carried out the recommendation of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the House in which the Opposition had a prominent presence. The PAC, he pointed out, had frowned at incurring of excess expenditure by several departments in excess of their allocation and without any authorisation by the Assembly and sought curbs, including the measure contemplated in the present GO, to check such practices. He assured the House that the order was issued after writing several times to the heads of departments.

`PAC was misled'

However, the CPI(M) memb er, T. K. Balan, who sought adjournment of the House to discuss the issue, said the officials had misled the PAC in the matter. The PAC, he said, was not told that under the Treasury Code salaries were exempt from such restrictions. He also saw a pattern in the Government action and said it was part of the measures taken by the Government to curtail the benefits available to State employees.

The Leader of the Opposition, V.S. Achuthanandan, demanded to know why the Government was silent about the other recommendations of the PAC.

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