Ramesh Chennithala slams salary challenge'

Thiruvananthapuram: Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala has demanded the withdrawal of the ‘salary challenge’ an-nounced by the LDF government. He told repo-rters at Cantonment Hou-se here on Monday that the order asking the government employees to sign a ‘declaration of un-willingness’ was issued by Finance Minister T. M. Thomas Isaac without the knowledge of Chief Mini-ster Pinarayi Vijayan and the cabinet.

He said that the cabinet should withdraw the clause as there should be only a ‘declaration of willingness.’ He also demanded that Mr Isaac should apologise for issuing such a wrong order.

"The chief minister had only made a request and not forced any employee to contribute. His suggestion  to contribute one-month’s salary in 10 instalments had received a positive response,” he said.

“Mr Isaac did not consider the people’s willingness to contribute,” Mr Chennithala said and added that the order had created a division among the government employees -- those willing to contribute and those who were not.

He did not respond to the allegation raised by KPCC general secretary Padmaja Venugopal about the role of five Congress leaders in the ISRO case.

However, KPCC president M.M. Hassan told reporters at the Press Club here that Karunakaran had stepped down as per the directive of the AICC leadership and that it had nothing to do with the spy case.

“Whatever happened in the spy case is history which is covered in ash. We need not remove the ash now. Such allegations are not good for the party,” he said.