Southern States
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Kerala
Handloom welfare fund, Guruvayur Devaswom Bills passed
By Our Special Correspondent
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, DEC. 6. The State Assembly passed the Kerala Handloom Workers Welfare Fund (Amendment) Bill, 2001 and the Guruvayur Devaswom (Amendment) Bill, the former unanimously and the latter by a 73-32 majority.
Winding up the debate on the Guruvayur Devaswom Bill, the Devaswom Minister, Mr. G. Karthikeyan, said that the UDF Government had sought to bring in the amendment limiting the term of office of the current administrative committee from four years to two years as it wanted to return the Devaswom administration to a committee elected by believers.
He said the amendment fixing the quorum for the committee meetings has been raised to four and this would make it possible for the elected representatives to participate in the decision-making process. He said that the apprehensions registered by the Opposition members regarding the powers given to the Commissioner were misplaced as this was merely a provision to prevent possible administrative deadlock in future.
He denied that the Government had brought in the legislation to disband the existing committee and silence the Opposition by wondering why the then LDF Government had legislated an amendment reducing the term of office from four to three years. ``This was the outcome of factional politics in the Janata Dal, whose representative was holding office as Devaswom Minister and the president of the Devaswom was a person who belonged to another faction,'' Mr. Karthikeyan said.
The Handloom Workers Welfare Fund (Amendment) Bill was passed unanimously by the House, after accepting a few minor amendments moved by the members. The Act seeks to revise the contribution of employers and employees in the handloom sector to the welfare fund. The contribution has been revised to Rs. 3 and Rs. 5 in the case of employees and self-employed persons respectively while in the case of employers, the contribution has been fixed on a slab basis depending on the turnover.
The Labour Minister, Mr. Babu Divakaran, said that the Government was willing to examine some of the shortcomings pointed out by members and this would be done within a specific time frame, ending March 2002.
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