The Government of has received orders from the Kerala High Court to create a plan that will ensure that the salaries of the employees of Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) are paid to them on time every month.
Employees had filed a petition that the KSRTC be directed to create a process or scheme wherein the KSRTC employees would receive their salaries before the 5th of every month.
The single bench comprising Justice Devan Ramachandran observed that till KSRTC manages to settle all its loans and pending dues, it cannot become self-sufficent. However, he did hope that in the future KSRTC will at some point become self-sufficient after it has cleared all its pending commitments and be in a position to fulfil its own expenses.
The employees were paid their salaries for October as assured by the Court to KSRTC. However, this was done with the financial aid and support of the state government in the form of almost Rs 50 crore.
Earlier this year, on 21 June, the Kerala High Court had ordered that the salaries of the employees of KSRTC should be disbursed by the 5th of every month, as was the practice followed in the past.
Before that, KSRTC had also been directed to ensure that its drivers, conductors and mechanics were paid first before the supervisory staff. At the time, the HC’s interim order had stated that KSRTC should use the revenue earned in the month of June to pay the salaries for the month of July.
While the management of KSRTC at the time had felt that all its financial issues would be solved if it earned a revenue of about Rs 8 crore, the HC had asked that there be conducted a serious and high-level audit into the issue.
