The Hindu : Loan plan would unfasten KSRTC: CITU

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Nov 11, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala-Thiruvananthapuram

Loan plan would unfasten KSRTC: CITU

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM Nov. 10. The CITU State general secretary, P. K. Gurudasan, has said that the Government move to secure a Rs. 221-crore loan from the Swedish Government `for setting up a new transport company' to cater to the travel needs of Thiruvananthapuram and suburbs would mean the end of the KSRTC.

In a statement here today, Mr. Gurudasan said the Transport Minister, K.B. Ganesh Kumar's statement at New Delhi after his discussions with the Swedish authorities showed that all the services, buses and workshops of the KSRTC in the capital district would be transferred to the new outfit which would be run with employees taken on contract basis.

This would mean that as many as 8,700 out of the 29,200 existing KSRTC employees would lose employment once the new project is commissioned, he said.

Mr. Gurudasan said already the KSRTC was in a precarious state on account of the cancellation of around 1,000 service after assumption of office by the UDF Government.

The situation was so bad that persons appointed from the PSC ranklists were being paid only daily wages not exceeding Rs. 100.

The Government had done all this despite the abundant scope for improving public transport facilities.

It seemed more keen to help the private operators and had been liberal in granting permits to them for operating services even in nationalised routes, he alleged.

He said KSRTC workers' unions affiliated to the CITU, AITUC and BMS, among others, had decided to go on strike on November 26 to protest against such policies of the Government.

Two vehicle marches led by the CITU leader, K.K. Divakaran, and the AITUC leader, M. Radhakrishnan Nair, would set out from Mananthavady and Kasaragod respectively on November 11 to spread word about the strike, he added.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Southern States

Stories in this Section

Plea to scrap MLA/MP funds, DRDAs

Chief of Air Staff arriving

Headload workers to strike work

Loan plan would unfasten KSRTC: CITU

Nepotism rampant in Govt., alleges Paloli

Photo ID cards for Sabarimala employees

Tribal land: one-year target set for resettlement