Kerala Assembly committee gives nod to pubs at IT parks

Thiruvananthapuram, May 23: Amid stiff opposition from the Congress-led opposition, a Kerala Assembly committee with majority members from the ruling CPI(M)-led Left has given the nod for the opening of pubs at the IT parks in the state.

According to sources, the model code of conduct will end on June 6 after which the state government will give the green signal for the opening of pubs at IT parks.

Across the state, there are now three major IT parks at Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode besides two smaller ones at Kollam and another one in Ernakulam district.

To start with, each park will have one pub and it can be run by the promoter (which is the state-run society who are the promoters of these IT parks) or anyone given the sanction to run it by the promoter.

Senior Congress legislator Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, who was part of the Assembly committee, said they strongly opposed this suggestion.

“Now they say there will be one pub in each IT park and you just wait and see, very soon it will be one pub in each IT firm and several restaurants are already functioning inside these IT parks. They will also be keen to open these. The result will be that for the young generation of professionals working in these parks, it might not be good. We will oppose this inside and outside the Assembly,” said Radhakrishnan.

He said since the ruling Left Front had a majority in the committee, they got the proposal passed.

It has been decided to levy an annual fee of Rs 20 lakh from each promoter when they apply for the pubs.

Various IT organisations have been demanding leisure facilities in IT parks for several years now. The demand for a pub was first made to the Oommen Chandy government but was shot down fearing protests.

Across Kerala, there are over one lakh IT professionals who work in these parks.