Not a happy Deepavali for SRTC staffers

BENGALURU/BELAGAVI: Not everyone is celebrating Deepavali this year. Close to 1.5 lakh employees working with four state road transport corporations (SRTCs) have not got their salaries on time since March when the Covid-19 pandemic broke out.

The KSRTC Union had requested the State Government to pay at least a part of the salary so that the employees could celebrate the festival of lights. But the amount was not sanctioned. Since the salaries were not cleared on Saturday, the employees will not be paid till Tuesday, as the banks are closed till then.

Recently, SRTCs had asked the government to release Rs 634 crore to pay the salaries till December.
Mahesh (name changed), a KSRTC driver, said that before March, employees got their salaries on the first of every month. “Now, we are paid between 15th and 20th of every month. We have families and other expenses. So, we end up taking loans from friends and financiers,” he said. 

Post unlock, occupancy in buses down by 60%

APART from delayed salaries, their incentives too have been stopped. “We used to get an allowance of Rs 25 to Rs 50 per night’s journey. But it is not being paid,” the KSRTC driver said. Another employee, requesting anonymity, said, “There are hardly any passengers in public transport buses even after the lockdown restrictions were eased.

The occupancy is at least 60 per cent lesser than what it used to be before Covid hit us.” Buses have started operating, but the number of trips has been reduced because of low passenger traffic, he added. Expressing regret, Transport Minister and Deputy Chief Minister Laxman Savadi said that the government is committed to paying Rs 325 crore in salaries every month to all his department employees.

Claiming that the Transport Department has suffered the biggest loss because of Covid, Savadi said in Belagavi on Saturday that his department managed to pay the salaries for two months during the lockdown, and also for the next four months despite the crisis.

The department pooled 75 per cent of the required amount from the government and 25 per cent from the Transport Corporation. He said that since a considerably lesser number of passengers are travelling in public transport buses, it has not been possible to generate revenues needed to clear the salaries of the entire staff.