Thiruvananthapuram: Amidst the State grappling with a severe financial crunch and a two-day suspension in the disbursement of salaries and pensions for government employees, Finance Minister KN Balagopal maintains unwavering assurance that there will be ‘no salary halt’. The Minister maintains that the inability to withdraw government employees’ salaries through their bank accounts is due to a technical fault.
The Minister stated that salary and pension would be made available soon after resolving the problem. He mentioned that Rs 13,600 crore, which the Center had agreed to give, had not been provided. He expressed frustration that the Central government was suffocating the state government. The Minister reported that the central government would only pay if the state withdraws the case from the Supreme Court. He however affirmed that despite the central government’s stance, salary and pension would not be stopped.
Balagopal argued that using the state’s own income, he would resist the Centre’s attempts to prevent the payment of social security pensions . Meanwhile, CPI(M) State Secretary MV Govindan stated that salaries had not been halted in Kerala. He stated that some people wanted the salary to be stopped. He emphasized that the central government would be responsible if the salary was halted.
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