Pay salary to KSRTC staff by 5th of every month: HC

The Kerala High Court on Tuesday observed that the salaries of drivers, conductors, and mechanical and store staff should be paid by 5th of every month as was the norm earlier.

Justice Devan Ramachandran also ordered that its earlier directive to pay salaries to drivers, conductors, and mechanic staff before paying salaries to the supervisory staff would continue to operate.

The court passed the order when a petition seeking a directive to the KSRTC to pay the salaries to the staff at the earliest came up for hearing.

When the petition came up, the government pleader submitted that a high-level committee under the aegis of the Chief Minister had been constituted to resolve the issues faced by the corporation.

The court observed that an emergent decision would have to be taken by the committee with a target of achieving the ability to pay salary by the 5th of next month. It must act quickly. The committee must also decide on how the KSRTC could generate revenue from its non-operational sources such as the land in its possession.

The court observed that every penny earned by the KSRTC was in fact on account of the contribution by the staff. Ideally, therefore, the income generated by them must be used first for paying their salary and then for other purposes such as interest payment .

The court pointed out that unless the low-paid employees such as drivers, conductors, and mechanical and store staff were paid before the 5th of every month, the KSRTC could never obtain any semblance of professionalism and efficiency.

The court pointed out that the affidavit by the KSRTC indicated that it had nearly ₹3,500 crore liability to banks and the servicing of interest on them ate into their income substantially.

The court said if the liability to the banks and overdraft facilities taken from financial institutions were kept away, the KSRTC was even today in a no-profit no-loss situation, after paying the entire salary to the employees. It was the accumulated losses and overdrafts which was now creating a big problem.