Kerala’s governor has stirred up a hornet’s nest by demanding the closure of a specific Kerala welfare scheme, which involves around 1,200 people who served as personal staff of ministers, opposition leaders and government chief whips. Adding additional beneficiaries recruited during the previous government would increase the number of people eligible for lifelong pension from the exchequer to about 1,500. Governor Arif Mohammad Khan has called for an end to this practice, calling it unconstitutional and against constitutional morality. According to estimates, the state spends around Rs 8 crore every year on these pensions. The beneficiaries, mostly political activists, receive a minimum pension of ₹3,550 per month and dearness allowance. In 1959, the state allowed ministers to have 20 members on their personal staff; Over the years this number has increased to the present 30. In 1994, when the Congress-led United Democratic Front was in power, pensions were approved through an executive order, with retrospective effect from 1982. Initially, the eligibility for this group was three years of service as opposed to 10 years for regular government employees. As the pension scheme for its regular employees in general became stricter, the government made major exceptions for this class. They are now eligible for pension after two years. The ruling Left Democratic Front led by the CPI(M) has said it will ignore the governor’s demand and the pension scheme will continue.
The pension scheme for private employees has become a safety net for the lucky among the cavalry of political parties, but it is a cruel insult to the rising ranks of unemployed and unemployed youth of the state. As pointed out by the Governor, there is also a pattern to replace one set of employees with another after two years, to cover more people under the pension scheme. Some of the recent controversies in Kerala have also brought to the fore other innovative methods of nepotism, such as the arbitrary recruitment of consultants. At the end of the previous government, seven people were appointed to the CM’s private staff with retrospective effect, making them eligible for pension. All parties in Kerala agreed to this arrangement, which was a source of political patronage in the resource-starved state. The governor has now disrupted that comfort zone by not only challenging it but also launching a public campaign against it. The fact that Kerala is in financial trouble makes this pension scheme all the more unacceptable to the general public. All political parties should take note of the outrage that this preferential treatment towards their opponents can generate against the political class in general. Instead of designing and defending such precarious plans, they should work together for a wealth-generating consensus in the state.
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