Ishtiyaq Ahmad
Early Times Report
Srinagar, Mar 5: To revive the already dead State Road Transport Corporation, a committee was formed on Tuesday to suggest measures for its revival.
"The SRTC has already become a burden on the state exchequer. Government does not trust authorities any more. Even to run new fleet of buses, the SRTC is unlikely to be given any role," an official said.
The official said that SRTC has been running in heavy losses over the years. "The revenue part is continuously declining and it is not in a position to pay salaries to employees," the official said
For the last four years, the SRTC has witnessed heavy losses and its assets are lying defunct. The Corporation had around 1800 vehicles including buses and trucks in 1900s whose number has reduced to less than 900.
On Tuesday, the government constituted a four-member committee with Administrative Secretary, Finance Department, Arun Kumar Mehta as its chairman, and administrative secretaries, Transport and Planning departments, along with Managing Director SRTC, as its members.
The committee has to inspect all the aspects of their breakdown and suggest measures for the restoration of the department to make it "economically viable and self-reliant".
The committee has to submit the report and recommendations observed during the inspection of the department to the government within the period of three months.
The SRTC has around 800 vehicles, whereas during the year 1988-89, the JKSRTC had 1,600 vehicles and in 2007-08, it had 1,100 vehicles.
When Public Sector Undertakings were set up in Jammu and Kashmir, nobody would know that they will one day even fail to pay salaries to their employees.
Official sources said that most of the Public Sector Undertakings are running in huge loss due to mismanagement by authorities.
The State Road Transport Corporation is also running into losses, which has become a liability on the state government.
Official figures reveal that SRTC has earned revenue of Rs 98.29 crore during the year 2016-17 and over 60 Rs crore in last fiscal. "The revenue part is continuously," the official said. |
