The Opposition Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) walked out of the Kerala Assembly in protest on Wednesday (January 22, 2025), accusing the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) government of apathy in addressing the “unprecedented backlog” in pay revision and other benefits of government employees and pensioners.
An Opposition demand that the House halt the day’s business to discuss the matter was declined by Speaker A.N. Shamseer after Finance Minister K.N. Balagopal termed the UDF charges “politically motivated, misleading and baseless.”
The issue came up in the House on a day a section of employees’ and teachers’ organisations are striking work in Kerala in protest against the “continued denial” of pay revision, dearness allowance, leave surrender and other benefits.
Finance Minister’s assurance
Mr. Balagopal assured the Assembly the State government would disburse the benefits in a time-bound manner. The assurances regarding employee benefits made by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in July 2024 under a Rule 300 statement in the House will be kept, he said.
“It was the Congress-led UDF that had a history of denying the employees their rightful benefits,” he said. As announced by the Chief Minister, two pending DA arrears have been issued this year. Two more will be disbursed in the next fiscal, Mr. Balagopal said.
He accused the UDF of being “insincere” in its regard for employee welfare, saying that employees and farmers were aware that the Left front represented their “guarantee.” “Kerala is among the handful of States that allowed leave surrender benefit and implemented pay revision once in five years,” he said.
While the Union government has left 10 lakh vacancies unfilled, the LDF government in Kerala has taken care to fill all vacancies, Mr. Balagopal said.
Opposition hits back
Opposition members accused the Minister of “artfully skirting” the real issues and denying employee benefits to the tune of ₹1 lakh crore in withheld benefits and several other benefits that were withdrawn such as service weightage in pay revision and house building allowance.
Leader of Opposition V.D. Satheesan accused the government of denying employees ₹35,000 crore in DA, ₹24,500 crore in leave surrender and ₹5,500 crore in pay revision benefits. Although the term of the last pay revision ended in July 2024, the government is yet to form a new Pay Revision Commission. “Had it been constituted on time, the commission would have submitted its report by now,” Mr. Satheesan said.
No other other government in Kerala has run up such a huge backlog in employee benefits, he said.
Congress’ P.C. Vishnunadh, who moved the adjournment motion, accused the government of denying the leave surrender option for five years and multiple instalments of other benefits. “The same CPI(M) that was justifying the denial of leave surrender for five years now had launched protests when the A.K. Antony-led UDF government temporarily withheld the option for 20 days,” he said.
UDF members also termed the MEDISEP health insurance scheme “useless” to employees and pensioners in its present form.
