KSEB fails to hand over amount of Rs 126 crore to relief fund

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala Electricity Board has not handed over the amount collected last year for the relief fund. An amount of Rs 136 crore was collected from KSEB employees via salary challenge to rebuild Kerala. However, even after a year, the board has not handed over the money to the relief fund.

As part of salary challenge, an amount of Rs 136 crore was collected in a year from employees salary. However, only an amount of Rs 10 crore was given so far. The remaining amount of Rs 126 crore was not given. Three days salary was given and the whole amount was collected in 10 months. 95% of the amount collected from salary of employees was not given to the relief fund. The board collected 102.61 crore till March 31, 2019. An amount of Rs 14.65 crore was collected from the rest of the months. Only Rs 10.23 crore of the proceeds from the salary challenge were transferred to the relief fund till June 30, according to official documents.

The usual practice is to give the amount collected from the monthly salary to the relief fund monthly. From last September onwards, the employees paid three days salary in 10 months via salary challenge. 99% left union members were participants of the challenge. The board had earlier handed over Rs 49. 5 crore to the chief minister's relief fund in September 2018 along with KSEB's 36 crores and one-day salaries of its employees. In addition, the amount raised through salary challenge was not handed over. Meantime, KSEB chairman N S Pillai said the amount was not transferred due to financial crisis of the board.