Responsibility

Dear friends,

Today,27th February 2010, two of our staff , Shri K Sadanandan and Dr K N Remani, retired from CWRDM service. The farewell ceremony was organized by Tarangam, the official cultural organization of CWRDM. The function was chaired by our Executive Director Prof. Dr K V Jayakumar. Tarangam President Shri M R Venugopal welcomed the gathering. In the felicitation address Dr N K Joseph, Head Surface Water Division and In charge of Registrar CWRDM mentioned about two factors to be evaluated while retirement. The one is the self analysis of the individual, who retires, has contributed to the Centre which in fact every employee should ask every day before leaving the office. The other one is the responsibility of the Centre to confirm that after the retirement the employee gets sufficient remuneration (pension ) to continue his living without difficulty. He admitted that in fulfilling the second responsibility the centre has failed and hoped for the best in future.

Shri Sadanandan K joined in CWRDM as Driver on 22nd October 1983. He is a dedicated worker always kept punctuality. He also served the staff of CWRDM by managing CWRDM Canteen. He has two married daughters. I wish a healthy, wealthy and a successful aftermath (retirement) carreer

Dr K N Remani joined in CWRDM on 29th November 1980 as Senior Scientific Assistant (SSA) and later appointed as Scientist in Water Quality and Environment Division and it was latter renamed as Environmental Studies Division. She became the Head of the Division. She was the topmost qualified person joined as SSA in CWRDM and such persons were given fast track promotion to Scientist- B in CSIR with effect from 1-2-1981. But this facility was not given to similar staff in CWRDM even though CWRDM accepted CSIR norms for Scientific and Technical staff of the Centre. After a lot of agitation under the leadership of Shri M R Venugopal the authorities of CWRM was forced to implement it in CWRDM, but as a vindictive measure they arbitrarily decided to implement it with effect from 23-3-1988. (The agreement made before the Honorable Minister for Irrigation and Governing Body Chairman of CWRDM Shri Baby John has agreed to implement CSIR in toto to the scientific and Technical staff of CWRDM but it was not implemented in toto.) Consequently lot of persons lost their seven years of precious service uncounted and due date of increment became March and now as a consequence of implementation of 6th Central Pay Commission, the Thuklakin predecessors, the increment date became 1st of July in every year. I don't know what justification is given for these type of vandalism.

Now the emerging trend is to convert Government Servants as slaves of political power. Even the so called unemployed youths are also very much fond of demoralizing their teachers (Asianet Programme) in the controversy about the increase of retirement age of College teachers. Will they relinquish the service benefits amassed by their predecessors when they get Government Jobs? One lady cries that the earth will perish, I am sure that Bhoomatha is not short-tempered as she is. They have to understand that it is the struggle for equality. We are very much fond of finding fault with others but will do nothing. If we want laborers, we have to search for Bhiharis, Tamilians etc. We are not interested in toiling with mud and we will find some reasons for our inactions, ie. the Goverment has fixed MPhil/PhD fas quailfication for Lecturers and hence those who have got MPhil/PhD should be posted as Lecturer in Govt. or aided Colleges!!!

I wonder why we call Indians when one state formulates retirement age as 55 the other state as 58 and Centre declares it as 60, 62, 65 etc. for the same post . Is it the constitutionally provided equality? Some of them says that retirement age should fixed as per the regional needs, then it is better to fix the tenure of Government service as 15 or 20 years and whoever completes this duration should retie without upper age limit as in the case of some Military Services.

Dr Remani didn't participate in the farewell function, I don't know whether it is a protest against the attitude of the authorities. Her husband has been retired from Legal Service and now continuing the legal profession . They have one married daughter serving as Doctor in a Private Hospital. I wish a healthy, wealthy and peaceful retired life.

With best wishes

ktv

More Crop per Drope

Dear friends,

CWRDM became the venue for National Seminar on' Soil, Water and Crop Management for Higher Productivity of Spices' during 11-12 February, 2010. The Seminar was Organised by CWRDM, Kozhikode and Directorate of Arecanut and Spices Development, Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India, Kozhikode under National Horticulture Mission, Government of India. The seminar was Inaugurated by Honorable Minister of State for Agriculture, Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, Government of India Professor Shri K V Thomas. The function was Chaired by Executive Director of CWRDM Professor Dr. K V Jayakumar. Director Dr M Tamil Selvan, Directorate of Arecanut and Spices development, Ministry of agriculture, Government of India, Kozhikode welcomed the gathering. Dr V A Parthasarathy, Director, Indian institute of Spices felicitated the function and Shri Babu Mathew, Scientist, CWRDM expressed vote of thanks. Delegates from Karnataka, Tamilnadu and Kerala participated in the seminar. It was divided into six sessions namely

1 Technical Session I(A)- LAND AND WATER MANAGEMENT
The Chairman of the session was Dr Tamil Selvan, Co-Chairman Dr N K Joseph and Rapporteur was Shri R Gopakumar. In this session about nine papers were presented including the lead paper 'Soil, water and input management for increasing spices production' which was presented by Dr V A Parthasarathy

2 Technical Session I(B)- LAND AND WATER MANAGEMENT
The Chairman of the session was Dr A K Sadanandan, Co-Chairman Dr N Narasimha Prasad and Rapporteur was Dr A B Anitha. In this session also about nine papers were presented with lead paper on 'Integrated Nutrient and Water Management for sustainable Spice production' was presented by Dr A K Sadanandan

3. Technical Session II-VARITAL IMPROVEMENT AND PLANT PROTECTION
The Chairman of the session was Dr M Anandaraj and Co-Chairman was Dr Kamalam Joseph and Rapporteur was Dr T K Jalaja. In this session two lead papers and 9 papers were presented. The lead paper 'Plant Protection Measures for enhanced productivity of Spices' was presented by Dr M Anandaraj and the second lead paper 'Spices varities and Varital Improvements for changing land, water and crop envirornment' was presented by Dr K M Kuruvilla

4. Technical Session III-CROP MANAGEMENT
The Chairman of the session was Dr K V Peter and Co-Chairman was Dr E J Joseph and Rapporteur was Shri George mammen. In this session also two lead papers and 9 papers presented. The first lead paper 'Enhanced productivity linkd to higher farm gate price to spice farmers' was presented by Dr K V Peter and the other lead paper 'Cropwater Requirements Estimation Methods' was presented by Dr S Mohan.

5. Technical Session IV was the farmers meet and Technical session V was Panel discussion and lastly Valedictory session

About 150 delegates participated in the function

ktv

Service Pension for Employees of KSCSTE

Dear friends,

Service Pension to the employees of research institutions established by Government of Kerala is a very long pending issue and after the inception of KSCSTE the issue regained its importance and was discussed in many forums, still, it didn't materialize. The first Nayanar Ministry was very much positive for the implementation of the same but at that time some of the scientists were not interested in it and now they also understood the importance of service pension. After the swearing in ceremony of LDF Government headed by Shri V S Achuthanandan and the appointment of new Executive Vice President Dr E P Yesodharan and Member Secretary Dr G Muraleedhara Kurup gave a new dimension to this issue. The Chief Minister has directed the Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and environment to submit a proposal for service pension for the Research Institutions under KSCSTE. The office order Council (M)34/2009/KSCSTE dated 4th March 2009, the Executive Vice President has entrusted Dr G Muraleedhara Kurup for formulating a pension scheme for the employees of the Council and its R&D Institutions within a period of three months. On 23rd January 2010 the Member Secretary has submitted his report and it is now circulated for comments.

I whole heartedly welcome this report with a humble request to the Government that kindly waive the condition to refund the EPF loans taken from Employer's contribution for HOUSE CONSTRUCTION purpose as there was no Government loan available to these employees and they have already paid a huge some of interest to private agencies for which no subsidy is obtained from government and, moreover, it is a cumbersome procedure.

Prof. Muralidhara Kurup's report is a very concise one and at the very outset itself he has pointed out the importance of Service Pension to S&T Staff. "Kerala has pioneered literacy and female education among other social advances. At the higher education and research level, Kerala has somewhat lagged, yet we have a small set of academic and scientific institutions created by the State Government that have done commendable work. ... Although the Kerala government has been generous in funding infrastructure development and providing Non-Plan grants, retirement benefits were not provided except for the mandatory EPF contribution. This, unfortunately, is a poor substitute for service pension which all teachers and staff of Universities and aided educational institutions in Kerala avail. At the National level also research Institutions like ICAR, CSIR, DRDO, BARC, ISRO etc; have provided attractive retirement benefits."

Further the report reminds the government that "The Research Institutions under KSCSTE have been established by the government to serve the State. As they have been in existence for over three decades, the government has a commitment to provide Non-Plan grants for salaries and EPF contribution. Service Pension is a reasonable social security for those who serve the State. This is applicable also for the scientists and staff of the Research Institutes created by the State."

The Conditions laid out in the Proposal are;
1. The Kerala Government may make a Cabinet decision and issue a Government Notification grantig service pension to staff of Research institutes under the KSCSTE, who have completed 10 years of continuous service as on 1 November 2009.

2. Service pension will be fixed as per Kerala Service Rules Part III, by the Accountant General in the usual way for government employees and it shall be mutantis mutantis revised as and when the State Government or the central Government revises the service pension according to the pay scales of the employees.

3. Employees who wish to opt for Service Pension in lieu of the current EPF should agree in writing to surrender their credit in the Employer's contribution and to refund the loans taken from the Employer's contribution with interest within the time frame fixed by the government.

4. The employees provident fund organisation give exemption and exclusion from EPF, the outstanding credit in Employees' Contribution will be transfered to State General Provident Fund (GPF) and it will be maintained for each employee and managed as per the GPF Rules.

5. Service Pension will be paid from the State Treasury as for regular State Government Employees and teachers in aided schools and colleges either by the Accountant General direct or through a designated officer of the planning and Economics Affairs or the Science and Technology Department of the Government of Kerala.

6. The LIC assisted Group Gratuity Scheme existing in the Institutions may be reviewed later.

7. For those provided with State Government pay scales and retiring at 58 years, pension will be fixed on the basis of their salary as in state Government service. i.e.at 55 years.

8. Detailed Rules and Regulations for implimentation of Service Pension and GPF can be drawn up as soon as policy decision is taken by the Government in the matter


It is true that EPF with 12% of salary will be more attractive on the basis of calculation but reality has shown that after few years of retirement the amount has exhausted. EPF pension will not be a sufficient source of income for persons with old age ailments with loneliness . Instances are there to quote who have committed suicide due to penury. In this circumstances I heartily congratulate the LDF Government, EVP, Member Secretary , Unions and others for their sustained endeavor to full fill the long cherished dream of Science and Technology Staff of Kerala. I congratulate all of them involved in the mission and wish all success in their endeavor to materialize service pension to the employees of KSCSTE which is a revolutionary concept that they have taken in an era of Contributory Pension which squeezes the employees in the name of pension.

If it is materialized, the V S Government will be remembered by this as in the case of Land Reforms Act of EMS Government.

With best wishes

ktv