Dear friends,
Centre for Water Resources Development and Management(CWRDM) is an autonomous research institute established by Govt. of Kerala under its Science and Technology Policy on 21st February 1978. The Honorable Chief Minister C Achutha Menon and the Secretary to Govt of Kerala Dr P K Gopalakrishnan and the founder Director Dr C M Jacob were the visionaries involved in the creation of cwrdm. It was started in Ranjith, Pattam and latter shifted to 156 acre of land, which was actually acquired for Calicut University, in Kunnamangalam, Kozhikode(Calicut).
As it was a new Institute there were so many teething problems to be sorted out and consequently cwrdm Employees' Association was formed on 16th November 1980 by the meeting convened at Malabar Christian College High School, Calicut. Its first President was Com V K Rajan, MLA and the,then Honorable Minister for Agriculture . The Working President was Er K M Avirachan, Shri K Raveendran Pillai was Vice President, Shri. S Sunderam Asari was the Secretary , Shri P K Kunhikannan was the Treasurer and Shri E G Soman was Joint secretary. The union has submitted a memorandum to Dr Subba Rao, Honorable Minister of Irrigation and Chairman of cwrdm Governing Body consisting of 43 demands in which first was regarding Gratuity and second was pension and the last was to revise the existing service rule. Most of the demands were allowed but the most important demand pension was not implemented due to non consensus of Scientists community. When Shri Sundaram Asari got another job and left the centre Joint secretary Shri E G Soman became Secretary and Shri A Kabeer was the new Joint Secretary.
The Executive Director at that time was Er P Kumaraswamy and some of his actions made Scientists against him and even though he was appointed for ten years, he was expelled from his service prematurely and he moved to the Court for redress. But he was expired before getting a verdict from the Court. This was a sad incident.
When Er Avirachan got foreign assignment Dr K R Vijakumar became the working President and Shri Ieswaran Potti was the secretary. The expulsion of ED and aftermath actions has also effected the unity of staff and consequently cwrdm Employees' Organisation was formed on 5th December 1982 under the leadership of Shri M Kutyali, MLA and its working President was Shri N C John, vice President was Shri K G Gopalakrishnan Nair , Secretary was Shri Radhakrishnan, Joint secretary was Shri K Raveendran and Treasurer was Shri T S Raman. Dr L C Kandaswami, Shri N K Joseph, Shri M R Muhamed, Shri T Sreenivasan, Shri I Raveendran Nambiar, Shri K P Chandrasekharan and Smt T C Vimalakumari were Executive Commmitee members
As per the decision of cwrdm EC held on 28-2-1978 decided to accept CSIR grades and pay for Technical Staff of the Centre and whenever the Secretariat grades are revised, it will become applicable to non-technical staff of the Centrer with the approval of cwrdm Executive Committee
Later Dr KR Vijayakumar got appointment in Rubber Board and cosequently Shi M R Venugopal became Working President and Shri K R Prassannakumar as Secretary of cwrdm EA. By that time our sister organisation, Centre for Earth Science Studies(CESS), has implemented CSIR Velluri Commission Report and consequently the staff of cwrdm also wanted to implement it. But the lacuna in implementing it in cwrdm was the fact that as per the Velluri Commission report only First Class Diploma with 3 years duration alone was eligible for Fast Track Promotion. (CSIR has treated this matter very liberally so that even 2 year Trade Certificate holders were given Fast Track Promotion but this fact was unknown to them at that time). The majority Technical staff were Diploma holders in Agriculture having less than 3 years duration and thus Association prepared a separate Career Improvement rule starting with Rs 380-640 instead of Rs 425-700 for Group- II, Grade-1(in CSIR this is Group-III). This was brought to my notice by Shri E Abdul Hameed, when myself and Shri K Lakshmanan were in Annamalai University for our Computer course contact program and Examination. When I reached in cwrdm I have gone through their recommendations and I discussed this matter with my father in law Shri Kommadath Chandrasekharan, Retd. Div. Accountant, PWD. He prepared a strong letter which I redrafted and We(Smt Joyce Syriac, Shri K Lakshmanan and myself) submitted it through our Head, WM(Agri.) Division. Thus Association redrafted their Career Improvement rule and through deliberations they accepted to struggle for in toto implementation of csir rules in cwrdm. Shri M R Venugopal started hunger strike on 16th March 1988 in front of cwrdm which was inaugurated by Com. P K Balakrishnan Master, Counselor, Calicut Corporation and after 7 days struggle an agreement was signed in front of Honb'le Minister for Irrigation Mr Baby John to implement CSIR Velluri Commission Report in toto in cwrdm on 23-3-1988. Dr P Basak was the Executive Director and Shri Unneen Kutty was the Registrar of the Centre at that time.
The authorities kept this agreement in abeyance and by that time Shri MR Venugopal has gone for higher studies and hence my self , Shri E Abdul Hameed, Shri Radhakrishnan Nair, Shri T Valsen, Shri K R Prasannakumar, Shri G Narayana Pillai etc discussed the matter and gave the details of mode of implementation to the Chairman constituted for the purpose of implementation of CSIR Career Improvement Rules in CWRDM. Here also proper initiative was lacking from the part of Association and hence I kept aloof from the Association activities.
The implementation of Velluri Commission report was not in letter and spirit of the agreement and consequently Technical Staff were devoid of the benefits of CSIR rules and forced to accept the draw backs in the name of CSIR rules.
Namely, 1. The date of effect of Fast Track Promotion was 1-2-1981 but it was implemented with effect from 23-3-88 in cwrdm. This was done in-order to protect the interests(untouchable attitude) of the direct recruited scientists(w. e. f 1-2-1981) from Fast Tack promoted incumbents. Consequently the actual benefits were denied to them
2. The scale of pay of TA Gr2 was Rs 380-560 with effect from 21-10-1982 instead of Rs 330-560 as implemented in cwrdm. This again was replaced by Rs 380-640(revised Scale Rs 4500-7000) w. e. f. 1-1-1996. Hence presently Group- I(in CSIR Group-II) contains Four Grades only instead of Five in cwrdm
3. There were 7 grades with effect from 1-4-1988 in Technical Officers Grade(Groupe-II in cwrdm and Group III in CSIR) but it is still only 5 in cwrdm even though CESS had implemented it to 6.
4. Percentage limit for promotion was also removed from CSIR rules with effect from 1-4-1988(MANAS Report).
5. Drastic changes were made in Group III Category staff promotion rules in CSIR (Groupe-II in cwrdm) w. e. f. 1-4-1992 as per provisions of Revised MANAS. I will write about it latter
Organisation took a main roll in implementing Kerala Forest Research Institute(KFRI) scales of pay to administrative staff of cwrdm with the help of Shri K Sankera Narayanan, the only one political member in the history of CWRDM GB, the then Finance Minister of Kerala. Shri M K Sekharan was the working President of cwrdm Employees' Organisation at that time. It was a better scale to certain administrative staff but detrimental to Typists, watch men, sweeper and technical staff because in KFRI Technical Staff were governed by state scale of pay. As a result of the implementation of the KFRI rules in cwrdm Technical Staff recruited after 6-12-1987 were also governed by state scale of pay.
When Shri M R Venugopal came back after his studies he started to rejuvenate the union activities consequently in order to form a new union an ad hock committee was formed on 26-6-92 in which Shri A Kabeer, Shri K G Anil kumar, Shri K G Ittoope, Shri Chandra Bhoosan Sood, Shri P Raghavan Nair, Shri George Mammen and myself were participated and decided to form cwrdm Staff Federation and its inauguration was on 5th July 1992 at Venad Hotel , Medical College, Calicut . At that time external member ship was not allowed and hence no external president was there . My self was the Chairman, Shri A Kabeer was the Secrtary, Shri George Mammen was the Vice Chairman, Shri K G Anil Kumar was Joint Secretary, Shri K G Ittoope was the Treasurer and Smt Sasikala was the Executive Committee Member and Shri P Raghavan Nair was the Auditor. Even though we have political longevity still we were not interested to bring it in to the Research Organization activities but latter we found that it is very difficult to survive without the help of political support in between two strong political unions. Consequently on 28th August 1994 Com T P Dasan, former Mayor of Calicut Corporation, became the First President of our Staff Federation and myself was Working president, Shri V M Balagopalan was the Vice President, Shri A Kabeer was the Secretary, Shri K G Anil Kumar was the Joint Secretary, Shri M Haridasan was the Treasurer. Under his leader ship we flourished and we conducted Dharna on 1st September 1997 in front of cwrdm to materialise our demands, which was inaugurated by Com Elamaram Kareem, MLA and CITU State Secretary ,the then Honourable Minister for Industries
Consequent to some false allegations against Com. T P Dasan our new President was Com. C P Balan Vaidyar w. e. f. 8-2-1998. Even before becoming our President he was very much involved in the activities of cwrdm from his first tenure in Kerala Legislative Assembly onwards by supporting the local people inorder to get the promised appointment by the Goverment to the evicties of the land acquired for cwrdm and in cwrdm Employees Association struggles against the vindictive actions of cwrdm authorities. Under his leader ship we conducted 427 days struggle against the mismanagement of cwrdm authorities. He passed away on 27th September 2008. I have already published a post about him on September 2008 issue.
The latest decision of the Honourable High Court of Kerala is a boon to the Technical Staff and Fast Track Promoted Scientists of cwrdm. Its benefits are immense if the H C order is implemented as directed by Honorable Justice Shri T R Ramachandran Nair in OP No27219/2000.
There are two verdicts . Select the case number and then press submit to see the appropriate one.
Thanks a lot for the wise decision of the Honorable High Court of Kerala.
With best wishes
velayudhan
