Maharashtra govt releases Rs 200 cr to MSRTC for payment of December salary

The State Government on Friday released Rs 200 crore to the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) for the payment of salary to its employees for the month of December 2021. It was disbursed from Rs 1,150 crore earmarked for MSRTC in the supplementary demands tabled during the recently concluded winter session of the state legislature.

MSRTC officer told the Free Press Journal, ‘’The state government since March 2020 especially after the imposition of coronavirus pandemic lockdown has provided well over Rs 3,000 crore to MSRTC towards payment of salary to its 93,000 employees considering the paucity of funds. Recently, the management has announced a ‘’historic’’ salary hike to the employees with an appeal to the striking employees to call off the strike. MSRTC has already incurred a loss of more than Rs 600 crore as the strike continues for the last two and half months. Against this backdrop, allocation of funds from the government was essential.’’

According to the official, of the 93,000 employees, nearly 25,000 are currently reporting to their work in different depots across the state. The management has already suspended 11,024 and dismissed 1,400 employees for defying the repeated calls for reporting to their duties. As reported by the Free Press Journal, the management two days ago had served show cause notice to 55,000 employees.

Meanwhile, Transport Minister Anil Parab on Friday said the management had given an opportunity four times so far to the striking employees to report to work but they did not. He warned that the management will not take back suspension and termination already ordered against the striking employees.

‘’Suicide is not the solution. If the workers do not get two months’ salary, then their financial situation will be fragile and therefore, we are repeatedly requesting them to return to work. But some workers do not allow others to report to work which is detrimental to both the employees and the MSRTC,’’ said Parab.

Published on: Friday, January 07, 2022, 09:17 PM IST