Andhra Pradesh - Vijayawada   

Assured payment gives some relief to temporary workers of APSRTC

K.Srimali

How they wished the strike continued for some more days

VIJAYAWADA: For Putta Prasad, an unemployed graduate who is living with his wife in Delhi, the occasional visit to hometown coincided with the short strike by APSRTC employees and it has proved rewarding.

Responding to the corporation's call to unemployed youth to report for duties as conductors during the strike period for a daily payment of Rs.130, Mr. Prasad tried his luck at the Regional Manager's office here.

He was immediately hired and was asked to report for duty at Machilipatnam depot.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, he discharged his duty from dawn to midnight to meet the targets set by the corporation.

But the quick truce the striking unions reached with the State Government and the consequent ending of the stir on Thursday came as a disappointment to him.

"I thought it would continue for some more days, but that's okay," he shrugs off in a philosophical mode.

The silver lining for the likes of Mr. Prasad and scores of others, who rose to the occasion and served APSRTC for two days, was the guaranteed `loyalty payment' of Rs.1,000.

An instruction from higher ups initially reached the Regional Manager's office here during the day that only those drivers and conductors who had served the corporation for both days are entitled for Rs.1,000, and those who served only on the second day are entitled only for Rs.500.

But the picture became clear by evening, as revised instructions said that whoever had served the corporation during the strike period were entitled for Rs.1,000.

But the amount, which was paid at the depots where temporary drivers and conductors were hired, was paid only after deducting the daily wage calculated at the rate of Rs.150 for drivers and Rs.130 for conductors.

In other words, if a driver worked for both days, he would have got Rs.700.

`Not a bad bargain'

"It is not a bad bargain after all," said Zakir Hussain, who was hired by Vidyadharapuram depot. "But it would have been even better if the strike continued for some more days."

He waited patiently at the RM's office to collect his SSC pass certificate that was retained by the corporation officials as security deposit.

The temporary drivers deposited their original driving licenses and temporary conductors deposited their SSC certificate.

Targets met

Though the officials had fixed daily targets for each route and cautioned temporary conductors that they would have to meet the shortfall if any, they said they did not implement the rule strictly.

"If we had not set the targets, they would have taken the collection lightly and could have even resorted to some fraud.

But we did not implement any penalty clause.

In fact, most of the conductors sincerely deposited their actual collection which, in most cases, had crossed our targets," Regional Manager M. Sitapathi told The Hindu .

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