Kerala CM mulls pubs at IT Parks in state

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan yesterday hinted that his government was not averse to demands or opening pubs at IT Parks in the state.

As soon as Vijayan said that he was not averse to the issue, the first opposition came from veteran Congress leader V.M. Sudheeran. Making it amply clear that times have changed and there is the need of ramping up of numerous facilities at IT Parks, Vijayan said that they had taken up the issue and were thinking on these lines after demands came from Nasscom and others.

“We were thinking about it and that was the time Covid-19 struck, leaving everything in shambles. Now that things are clearing up, we have got requests from several quarters on the issue of pubs and we will look into this aspect,” he said in the Kerala Assembly.

Three major IT parks

Across the state, there are three major IT Parks at Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode, which have a combined workforce of around 150,000. Lack of entertainment has been pointed out as one the major impediments for many major IT firms to further expand their operations in Kerala, even though the state is considered as one of the best destination in terms of availability of manpower and other facilities, he said.

Vijayan’s statement was however welcomed by a group of IT buffs. “Times have changed but it does not mean that employees will run into these pubs and have a glass of beer and resume office duties. It’s not at all like that, employees are responsible,” said the IT buffs.