The High Court on Wednesday directed the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation(KSRTC) to furnish the details regarding the present cadre strength of drivers, the number of services being operated and the number of drivers required for operating these schedules.

The court passed the directive on a petition filed by Nideesh Kumar and other candidates in the PSC rank list prepared for the posts of KSRTC drivers seeking a directive to the PSC to advise candidates from the rank list published on August 23, 2012, to fill the 2,455 vacancies reported to the PSC. These vacancies were reported following a High Court directive.

Meanwhile, the KSRTC in an affidavit filed before the High Court submitted that it was in a “huge financial constraint and is not able to meet even the expenses for the salary and pensions of the employees.” The monthly deficit of the Corporation was ₹100 crore to ₹110 crore. In fact, the Corporation finds it difficult to pay its employees salary regularly. The Susheel Khanna committee appointed to look into the revamping of the Corporation said the proportion of buses to employees was too high.

The ratio of buses to employee 1:8.7 in KSRTC, while the ratio of other road transport Corporation is 1:5.5. The Corporation had decided not to make any fresh appointments to any cadre till the cadres were finally decided on the recommendation of the committee.