All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam general secretary Jayalalithaa on Wednesday condemned the delay in payment of dues from State transport corporations to Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and asked the government to release the amount immediately.
She also condemned the delay in payment of pension benefits to the employees.
In a statement, she said more than 20,000 buses are operated by the eight State transport corporations.
Till recently, the corporations used to pay for fuel once in three months. However, in the past few months as they could not pay the oil company, IOC changed rules and introduced cash-and-carry system.
Owing to this, the loss-incurring corporations were unable to pay for diesel, resulting in fuel shortage.
She said the State Transport Corporation at Kumbakonam owed the oil company Rs.23 crore.
The corporation had pledged its Thanjavur depot with a private bank for Rs.12 crore. Similar was the status of other transport corporations.
Even the profit-making MTC had to pay Rs.18 crore to the oil company.
Owing to this hundreds of buses were not being operated by the MTC. Similarly, owing to non-availability of spare parts such as tyres hundreds of buses were not being operated by the corporation, she said.
With the Pongal festival nearing and if the trend continued, people would be put to a lot of hardship and have to shell out huge money to commute in private buses, she said.
