The Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) can avoid being dependent on the Finance department every month if around 1,200 buses idling in various units are made operational, Biju Prabhakar, Chairman and Managing Director (CMD), has said. In his third Facebook video on the crisis in the KSRTC posted on Monday, he said if these buses were made operational, the corporation would get an additional revenue of ₹30 crore.
If this amount is added to the average ₹210 crore it generates every month, the corporation will be able to tide over the crisis to a certain extent and disburse salaries on time. If these buses are made functional, the bus-crew ratio can be reduced, which is a major suggestion of the Sushil Khanna panel.
Double duty system
The double duty system, which only Kerala implements in the country, has to be revoked. An employee who willingly takes 16- or 18-hour double duty is not ready to do a spread over 12-hour duty with a four-hour break introduced by the Corporation. The CMD is depicted as a villain for providing a four-hour break with a ₹200 allowance for the break. At the same time, they are happy to do 16-hour double duty on a single stretch, he said.
This will not help the Corporation in any way and hence the change in duty pattern was suggested. But the employees opposed the 12-hour single-duty system. In depots where the new system was introduced, more services could be launched, making optimum use of the crew. A section of employees who oppose every reform in the Corporation is responsible for the poor show of public utility, he said.
Around 1,243 employees have been skipping work for a long time. They come to office once in a while, sign the register, and leave. Their main aim is the pension provided by the KSRTC, not the salary, which cannot be entertained. A list of such employees would be prepared and published before taking legal action against them, said Mr. Prabhakar.
Poor maintenance
The absence of proper periodic and preventive maintenance has also affected the life of corporation buses. If an Ashok Leyland engine used by Tamil Nadu gets an average life of 12-13 lakh km, the life for the same engine in Kerala is 7-8 lakh km. In the case of a radial tyre used in buses, the life of tyre is 3.65 lakh km in Tamil Nadu, while it is 1.8 lakh km in Kerala.
Also, employees at various depots do not even make a proper announcement when KSRTC-SWIFT buses reach the depot. The revenue generated from SWIFT goes to the account of the KSRTC to meet its operational expenses and liability, said Mr. Prabhakar. Without changing this mindset, it would be difficult for the Corporation to stay afloat, he said.
