In the news for wrong reasons for quite some time, especially in the endosulfan issue, the state-owned Plantation Corporation of Kerala(PCK) is making a concerted bid to regain its lost image.
As part of an ambitious diversification drive clubbing it with value addition of own produces, proposals for establishing a cashew factory in Kasargod and a palmoelin factory in Athirappally have been mooted by the corporation. The move comes at a time when the PSU is obliged to pay Rs 87 crore as part of the rehabilitation package announced by the State Government, out of which Rs 27 crore was paid in June this year.
As a counter culture to pesticide-driven agriculture activities, for which the PCK was pilloried, organic farming is being promoted consciously at select locations in a couple of PCK estates. Harvesting of organically grown cabbage and cauliflower was successfully undertaken at Mooliyar in Kasargod itself, without much ado. It has identified the potential of farm and eco-tourism also and is keen to promote them.
At the internal level, the evident disparity in payment of wages among workers has been done away with in the organisation, based on the principle of ‘equal wages for equal labour’.
Workers in the cashew estates of PCK were getting Rs 100 less a day than those engaged in rubber estates.
‘’Also, there are hundreds of ‘incentive workers’ in the PCK estates who had been doing the same work as good as the permanent workers. But their daily wages were Rs 100 less than the permanent workers,’’ PCK chairman Varghese George told ‘Express.’ The Agriculture Minister was prevailed upon to convene a conference recently and the disparity issue was resolved.
The PCK owns over 15,000 acres of cashew plantations and almost the same extent of rubber planted area under its fold in various parts of the state. Out of a total 35,000 acres, oil palm is cultivated in an approximate 1,500 acres.
The PCK is a major producer of centrifuged latex in its in-house factories apart from Crumb Rubber (ISNR) and Crepe Rubber.
It has also made a foray into the treated rubberwood industry. PCK has shown the lead in wage revision also. Traditionally, it is the Plantation Labour Committee (PLC) that decides the quantum and period of the wage revision of estate workers. The PLC is dominated by private estate owners and wage revision often gets delayed on account of it.
PCK reversed the practice this year and wage revision was implemented. The pay revision of the staff was also taken up.
The labour lines or quarters of the workers in 13 estates, which were shabby and not maintained for the last two decades, are being renovated at a cost of Rs 1.5 lakh each.
Rs 6.5 crore has been earmarked in the PCK’s annual budget this year for the purpose alone, said Varghese George.
PCK had also agreed to share the cost of establishing the proposed medical college in Kasargod under PPP model, but the government has decided to take up the project under the state now.
Comments
0 comment