Kozhikode: Over 22,000 members of the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) Pensioners Organisation will hold a dharna and protest march in front of the KSRTC chief office and district-level transport offices on Thursday demanding that the Government and the KSRTC management disburse the dearness allowance arrears due to them from January 1, 2000.

In a statement here on Monday, organisation State secretary T. Balan Nair and State committee member P.P. Krishnankutty said that the transport corporation distributed the revision in pension, dearness allowance, gratuity, commutation, provident fund and family welfare fund to pensioners only after four years of their retirement.

As per the rule, provident fund and family welfare fund should be given to employees on the very next day after they retired from service, they pointed out.

He said that arrears of 22 per cent dearness allowance since January 1, 2000, were pending. The pensioners of the KSRTC were getting only 37 per cent dearness allowance while the other State Government employees were getting 59 per cent dearness allowance. The dearness allowance that was to be given to pensioners from July 1991 was actually distributed from September 1995.

The amount outstanding was yet to be realised. Family pension and interim relief were also not given to the pensioners of the KSRTC, Mr. Nair said.

He said that the State Government and the KSRTC management had been apprised of the situation several times. But the employees did not get any benefits. They had no other alternative but to go ahead with the plan of agitation.

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