The Hindu : Kerala News : Creaking KSRTC gets more staff aboard

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Thursday, Feb 03, 2005

Kerala

Kerala

Creaking KSRTC gets more staff aboard

By C. Gouridasan Nair

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, FEB. 2. The Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC), the public sector transport behemoth, is ailing, but the State Government has found an innovative way to `solve' its problems: in five months, it has added 5,836 persons to the Corporation's rolls, an increase that would push its staff strength by over 25 per cent.

Listing the various measures the Oommen Chandy Government has taken for the welfare of the Corporation in the Assembly today, the Transport Minister, N. Sakthan, said that the Government had regularised the services of 2,462 empanelled staff and issued advice memo to 3,374 fresh recruits besides promoting 879 employees, all this within the last five months.

The Government has also sanctioned 5 per cent hike in dearness allowance costing Rs.10 crores and issued new uniforms at an estimated cost of Rs.1 crore, the Minister said.

The Minister did not also forget to mention another `unprecedented' measure of the Government, the sanctioning of a grant of Rs.20 crores to the Corporation besides a Rs.20.25-crore grant released earlier to the Corporation to augment its infrastructure facilities. This would mean that the present Government has granted Rs.40 crores to the Corporation as against Rs.24 crores given by the LDF Government during its entire term, Mr. Sakthan said.

The Transport Minister said there was no disputing the fact that the Corporation had financial difficulties and cited the Rs.35.89-crore being spent annually on student concessions and the Rs.24.89-crore being spent on providing concessions to various other categories as some of the factors contributing to the Corporation's woes. He also admitted that unlike several other States, the Kerala Government was not compensating the Corporation for the load it was taking by offering concessional travel to various sections.

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