Crisis looms over KSRTC again

31,000 staff get 70% of salary after delay of 10 days

Though the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) was able to pay 70% of the monthly salary to 31,000 personnel on Monday after a delay of 10 days, the ailing transport undertaking is clueless on how to overcome the financial crisis.

To keep the personnel in good spirits, the corporation has delayed the fuel bill of the oil major to mobilise the ₹50 crore needed for the part payment of salary. The ₹20-crore monthly assistance from the budget allocation and the refund of ₹5 crore deducted from last month’s allocation came in handy for the management.

The collection in the KURTC, that operates the JNNURM low floor AC and non-AC buses, going up from ₹40 lakh to ₹75 lakh in view of the ongoing Sabarimala pilgrimage also helped the transport undertaking to mobilise funds from the daily collection.

“The crisis faced by the transport undertaking is grave. The fuel bill cannot be delayed for too long as the fleet operations are needed to keep the KSRTC afloat. No one knows when the balance 30 per cent of the November salary can be paid. The chances of payment of December salary customarily done before Christmas are bleak,” official sources told The Hindu.

The management is groping in the dark over how to tide over one of the worst crisis as the financial aid from the government is not forthcoming due to financial crisis facing the exchequer. The KSRTC’s request for ₹40 crore from the exchequer has not evoked any response from the Finance Department. The Transport Minister A. K. Saseendran’s intervention has also not helped.

The employees have also turned hostile against the management as the salary is getting delayed for the last six months and over payment in instalments. The employees are upset over death of a conductor of Alappuzha depot, S. Udayakumar on Thursday night.

On strike

The two registered unions of the KSRTC, the CITU-affiliated KSRT Employees Association (KSRTEA) and the INTUC-affiliated Transport Democratic Federation (TDF) are on indefinite strike in front of the Secretariat. The AITUC-led KSRT Employees Union has also announced indefinite strike from Tuesday.

The only solace for the KSRTC management is that the 38,500 retirees are getting pension through Consortium of Cooperative Societies and that the average daily collection from the fleet hovers around ₹6.5 crore.

Shortage of drivers

The crisis faced by the KSRTC is due to the shortage of drivers arising out of the termination of the 2,358 empanelled drivers as ordered by the High Court, rising fuel bill and the daily revenue from the fleet not rising as per the expectations after the swapping of the loans with the consortium of banks led by SBI.