Hard times, desperate moves! Now, KSRTC mulls garbage collection

Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala State Road Transport Corporation which has been in financial doldrums for a while is desperate to stay afloat with measures that are unpalatable to the thousands of employees.

Soon after a controversy over the proposed move to commence liquor sales on its property, Chairman & Managing Director Biju Prabhakar has recommended that the KSRTC’s old buses and the drivers could be used for garbage collection in association with the local self-government bodies so that more revenue could be generated!

The KSRTC CMD had made the recommendation to the local self-government department on July 7.

By taking over the vehicles of various corporations, municipalities and panchayats and using the services of its drivers, the KSRTC is ready to help in waste disposal under certain conditions, according to the proposal.

Not only the services of drivers, the staff point out that there is also a recommendation to remodel the old buses and use them for waste collection.

As reported earlier a few unfit KSRTC buses were remodelled as shops and dormitories recently.

Biju Prabhakar

Other proposals

Other recommendations include the KSRTC be assigned the maintenance of the vehicles belonging to the city, town and village administrations. The labour unions, which have no objection to this, point out that this move could pave way for the government making crores of profit. This would also put an end to the practice of getting fake bills from private workshops. Currently, lot of money is lost every month on the pretext of repairs for each vehicle.

The KSRTC has good workshops and experienced staff. There are 25 workshops, including the Central Works at Pappanamcode. If the services of the staff and the workshops are utilised, the repairs of the vehicles belonging to the local bodies an be carried out at affordable rates. If services such as replacing batteries and tyres, and the conversion of vehicles to CNG are also handed over to the KSRTC, it would help to earn non-ticketing revenue.

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