Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Sunday yet again blamed the opposition DMK for the financial woes of the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) and appealed to the public to understand the circumstances that led to the recent hike in bus fares.
Speaking to the media here, he said that the government had decided to bring down the bus fare hike following protests by the DMK, other opposition parties and the public.
He said that in 2011, the outgoing DMK government had left the TNSTC with a debt of ₹3,392.15 crore, ₹1,528.05 crore as pending dues to the employees and ₹922.24 crore as pending dues to the retired staff. He said that 112 properties of TNSTC were mortgaged.
On the other hand, the salary of employees, which was ₹252.37 crore per month in March 2011, has now increased to ₹492.46 crore, a hike of more than 90%. “Despite such a huge financial burden, the government did not raise bus fares for six years,” he contended.
Central govt.’s share
Mr. Palaniswami also pointed out that the Central government had reduced its funding to the State government from 41% to 31% by stating that Tamil Nadu was a developed State now. “This has resulted in a revenue loss of ₹6,200 crore...For the UDAY scheme, we have to pay ₹6,250 crore. Hence, the government this year has to adjust for ₹27,000 crore compared to last year,” he said.
Stating that the TNSTC was facing a daily loss of ₹9 crore, which went up to ₹12 crore with the recent revision of employees’ salaries, the CM said that the bus fare hike was aimed at bringing down the loss to ₹4 crore a day.
“The bus fare hike is to protect TNSTC and the public should kindly cooperate with the government,” he said.
