THIS significant move has come at a time when the public transport system across the country has been suffering the worst due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

As the public transportation facilities across the country continue to incur losses due to the pandemic, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday, October 26, announced a new financial assistance package in an effort to revive the debt ridden Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC).

Pointing out that the condition of KSRTC, post Covid-19 was precarious, he said the government was preparing another package for reviving KSRTC. During the last two years, the corporation has been given Rs 1,000 crore each year. With the latest aid, the financial assistance provided by the government in the current year will be more than Rs 2,000 crore.

So far, the LDF government has provided a total of Rs 4,160 crore to KSRTC as against Rs 1,220 crore during the five years of the previous UDF government, Vijayan told reporters, adding, “and yet there has been criticism from many quarters of the government's "negligence".

He further said that the state government will protect the public sector and expand it.

"KSRTC will be revived and as part of the new package, some of the long-standing needs of the workers will be addressed," he added.

As per the package, an amount of Rs 255 crore would be released on an emergency basis to settle salary recovery arrears and medical reimbursement of KSRTC employees, pending since 2016. As an interim relief for pay revision pending since 2012, an amount of Rs 1,500 per month will be paid to all permanent employees.

Further, negotiations for salary revision will begin as part of the package. Empanelled employees will not be laid off, but instead be employed by a new subsidiary company of KSRTC, SWIFT, which would run the premium services.

On December 6, 2018, Kerala High Court had ordered to retrench the empanelled workers within a week to give way for the candidates who had secured advice memo from PSC. “As per the May 5, 2013 Rank List, openings have been reported to the PSC. Hence empanelled conductors cannot continue in their job. Action should be taken within one week or else it will be treated as contempt of court,” the court had said in its order.

Shortly after the court order, as many as 3,861 empanelled conductors were dismissed. Later in March 2019, these empanelled workers had been reinstated by KSRTC.

The CM also added that the interest of Rs 961 crore to be paid by KSRTC to the government will be waived. The loan of Rs 3,194 crore will be converted into shares. The government will take the initiative of negotiating with the Bank consortium for a new loan package.

It was announced that the new package will be discussed in detail with trade unions and be finalised as soon as possible in consultation with the management in an effort to protect KSRTC.

This significant move has come at a time when the public transport system across the country has been worst hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, the central government and various state governments have been gearing up for the privatisation of public transportation systems.

The central government on multiple occasions has made strong pushes for privatisation of public transport system, especially buses, in Indian cities.  Road transport and highways minister, Nitin Gadkari had even stated that state governments need to accept that they cannot run the system effectively and efficiently, and should adopt the London model of public-private partnership.

Not only that, the centre has also brought some major amendments to the Motor Vehicle Act, 1989 which had come in effect from October 1, 2020, through the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill 2019 which was passed by the Rajya Sabha on July 31, 2019.

The changes to the Motor Vehicle Act, 1989 were brought to open the transportation sector to private players.The transport workers across the country along with various unions had staged series of protests against the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill 2019 that paves way for privatisation. Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Assam, Telangana among other states have seen series of protests against the privatisation move.