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| SRTC seeks loan for clearing salary arrears | | | Early Times Reporter
Jammu | Feb 28
Debt ridden State Road Transport Corporation (SRTC) authorities has sought fresh loan of Rs.17.5 crores from the Jammu and Kashmir Bank Ltd. for releasing the pending salaries of its employees agitaing for last 20 days along with their family members in the state.
According to official sources senior authorities of the SRTC are believed to have worked out a peace deal with bank authorities along with an assurance that it would repay the amount after selling its assets spread across different stations within and outside the state.
Though the deadlock is still not over but the state government authorities are hopeful that soon after completing the paper work the employees salaries will be released.
It may be mentioned that the 10-day long strike had paralysed the entire fleet of trucks and buses of the SRTC and the government had no other alternative but to seek bank loan for clearing the salary arrears. Already the SRTC has taken a loan of Rs.30 crores for meeting cost of establishment. Till date the total liability of the corporation has crossed Rs.100 crore which includes over Rs.35 crores provident fund. It has to pay a compensaton and retirement benefits of Rs.eight crores and pending instalments of COLA since 1999.
The SRTC workers union and the Transport Minister,Hakim Mohd.Yaseen,dish out contradictory statements on the financial health of the corporation.Mr Yasin has said that while on one hand the Government has to bear a hefty wage bill of the Corporation employees,on the other the fleet of buses and trucks,opertating on various state and inter-state routes does not yield even 30 per cent of the expenditure.
However, union leaders,including chairman,Shakeel Ahmed Kochey,said here today that the Government and the Corporation were responsible for the heavy losses.Explaining it Mr Kochey said that out of a fleet of 650 buses and trucks,plying on different routes,more than 70 per cent had outlived their utility needing immediate replacement.He another factor is that the state Government and the concerned agencies issued route permits to private bus and truck operators like cakes and since the private operators had better bus fleet passengers preferred to travel in private buses.
The Union Chairman added that besides this number of operators had put on road a large fleet of buses illegally and no Government agency carried out any check.He said that the only way for the corporation to come out of the red was to invest over Rs.100 on the purchase of new vehicles.He said there was need for preventing private operators from poaching in the routes earmarked for the Corporation buses.
They cited a latest Government report which has confirmed that the SRTC were now operating on 171 routes against 208 in 2002-2003. Also the number of passenger buses of the corporation had dwindled from 526 in 2005-2006 to 453 in 2007 and said “we are not responsible for it.”
It is in this connection the Managing Director of the Corporation,Mr Manzoor Lone,has submitted a detailed report to the Government listing measures that were needed for converting the CRTC into a profit making unit.The report had been prepared in pursuance of the suggestion given to him by the Chief Minister. |
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