After the eight-day long agitation by its employees which crippled bus services in the State early this month, the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation is facing the ire of the commuters over its decision to hike the bus fares. By an order dated January 19, the Tamil Nadu Government had hiked the bus fares in the State which instantly drew wide condemnation from the public as well as the Opposition parties.
The reason given by the State Government for the hike was that it was not able to sustain the operations with the present fares. “Diesel price and maintenance cost increased manifold and there is no other option before us,” said MR Vijayabhaskar, Minister for Transport justifying the hike in fares.
S Ramadoss, the founder of the PMK, had termed mismanagement and scam as the reasons behind the poor show of the TNSTC. His reaction was in response to the figures released by the State Transport Corporation that it was incurring a daily loss of Rs 9 crore.
An incident which happened at the Cuddalore office of the TNSTC is being seen as a proof of the mismanagement prevailing in the public sector enterprises.
The incident is about how two fake “drivers” took the corporation for a “ride” despite the claim by TNSTC that its operations have been completely computerised. Early November saw two gentlemen from Dharmapuri arriving at the Cuddalore office of the TNSTC claiming that they were drivers of the corporation. “We have been transferred from Dharmapuri to Cuddalore with immediate effect,” Selvakumar (36), told the head of the Cuddalore office. He was accompanied by Krishnan (34) who also was a driver. Since both were from Cuddalore district, the officer-in-charge did not find anything abnormal in their transfer. They submitted the transfer order from the Dharmapuri office and were allowed to resume their duties.
For two months, Selvakumar and Krishnan drove the vehicles diligently and drew salary from the depot. Passengers who had travelled in buses driven by the former Dharmapuri men were all praise for them. After two months, the Cuddalore depot officials asked their counterparts in Dharmapuri depot for the service records of the two “gentlemen”. The formers were in for a shock when the Dharmapuri officials feigned ignorance about Selva and Krishnan. It turned out that these two drivers were never recruited by the TNSTC. The transfer orders they handed over to the Cuddalore depot were found to be fake!
By the time the police went in search of them, Selvakumar and Krishnan had vanished. A probe is on and the police are after the two drivers who took the TNSTC for a ride.
The department has also ordered an investigation to find out the master brains who prepared the “impeccable” transfer orders. There is nothing shocking in the TNSTC suffering Rs 9 crore losses per day.