Kerala - Alappuzha   

Sudhakaran hits out at ‘nokkukooli’

ALAPPUZHA: Cooperation Minister G. Sudhakaran has come down heavily on workers who charge ‘nokkukooli,’ the system of payment for no work, saying a few pseudo-communists who secretly nurse Right wing ideologies are responsible for the shameful practice.

Speaking at a public meeting organised by the Kerala Gazetted Officers’ Association (KGOA) here on Monday, the Minister said the Alappuzha district committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) had decided way back in 1980 that it would not endorse the practice. However, a few black sheep are still engaged in the practice to purposefully disgrace the party. The CPI(M) or the Left Democratic Front government has never supported the concept.

On the other hand, the party believes that the individual has the right to decide whether he wants to employ labourers or whether they should be from his neighbourhood.

But, labour unions, particularly Right wing unions, have gone to the extent of even demarcating boundaries for each union. A so-called CITU [Centre of Indian Trade Unions] convener has been going around demanding ‘nokkukooli’ in Ambalappuzha. These are Right-leaning people who pose as communists.

The Minister chastised the CPI-backed All India Youth Federation and the All India Trade Union Congress for opposing the government’s proposal for an engineering college on the premises of the now defunct Scooters Kerala. These organisations, he said, forget the fact that the construction of the college has been entrusted to the Vadakara-based Uralungal Labour Contract Cooperative Society, an example of how labour organisations could work for the public benefit.

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