Contract appointments and profligacy at the highest level are reportedly affecting the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) even as the ailing public transport utility struggles to meet its financial commitments, including pension disbursal.
The employees are up in arms against the alleged appointment of retirees through the backdoor and the payment of hefty salaries to them in violation of the Kerala Service Rules (KSR). The government had not been happy with the decisions of KSRTC Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) Antony Chacko. The CMD had failed to turn around the KSRTC despite the government making available the requisite funds, sources said.
Mounting revenue-expenditure gap, dwindling income from the fleet, backdoor appointments, financial indiscipline, lack of professionalism, and decisions such as the withdrawal of free ride for students haunted the transport utility, they said.
Promotion
Pension for three months and part payment of the same for six months was due to 37,000-odd retirees. The promotion of the CMD’s private secretary, Kuruvila Lalu, on his last day in office and his reappointment as special officer; and the move to reappoint six retired District Transport Officers on contract basis had irked the employees and unions alike, sources said.
Mr. Lalu had been engaged on a monthly salary of Rs.30,000, in violation of the KSR. The director board was yet to clear the appointments. The Rs.4-lakh air conditioned suite created in one of the floors of the unused multi-storey bus terminal at Thampanoor is lying unused. The CMD vacated it after it was pointed out that he was not eligible for the hefty house rent allowance, they said.
The posting of an Assistant Transport Officer and the stationing of a car in Bangalore where the KSRTC had a reservation counter alone had invited criticism. While the employees found it hard to get medical reimbursement sanctioned, the CMD got Rs.2.52 lakh sanctioned by the board even after the audit wing found that he was not eligible for Rs.97,000 spent at a private hospital, sources said. Kerala State Road Transport Employees Association (KSRTEA) general secretary C.K. Harikrishnan said they had opposed contract appointments as it would upset precedence in the ailing transport utility.
Pension pending for 37,000-odd retirees
Violation of Kerala Service Rules alleged
