The entire Opposition, including the Kerala Congress (M) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), staged a walkout in the Assembly in protest against the government’s refusal to agree to an adjournment motion on the crisis in the KSRTC, including the delay in payment of pension.
The Speaker rejected the notice for an adjournment motion in the light of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s assurance on the government’s commitment to reviving the ailing public utility and payment of pension, including arrears.
Without blandly rejecting the demand for government capital investment and takeover of the pension commitments, Mr. Vijayan said the government’s aim was to equip the KSRTC to stand on its legs and meet its financial commitments on wages and pension.
The notice for the adjournment motion, moved by former Transport Minister and Congress member Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, M. Ummer, and Anoop Jacob, served to bring out the LDF and UDF’s discomfiture on the issue of reviving the KSRTC. The Chief Minister narrated the various steps the government had taken to find a lasting solution to the crisis in the public utility. He said the government would implement the interim report of the Khanna committee on the revival of KSRTC in stages.
The KSRTC had taken several measures to improve staff output and fuel efficiency through rescheduling of services. However, such steps were not enough to tackle the crisis in the corporation, which had an accumulated loss of over ₹7,000 crore in 2017-18. He highlighted the change in his government’s approach towards reducing the interest burden on loans taken from the SBI-led bank consortium during the UDF regime.
This was brought down to 9% from 12%, he said. The government had already wrapped up an agreement with the consortium of 10 banks for a revival package of ₹1,350 crore. Of this, two banks had committed to advance ₹1000 crore.
Mr. Radhakrishnan said the UDF government’s attempts had been to reduce huge financial burden mounted by the previous LDF government under V.S. Achuthanandan. It was unfortunate that the Chief Minister had concealed the fact that it was during his tenure that steps were taken to reduce interest rate from 16 to 12 per cent for the loan taken from the consortium of banks. Similarly, the LDF government had spent huge amount of funds for developing prime properties. Many of these buildings were declared as white elephants, he said.
The Opposition confined its floor exercises to a walkout, but not before urging the Chief Minister to bring more clarity on the government’s stand on the Khanna committee report.
