Ernakulam: The government has initiated efforts to pacify the KSRTC employees as the trade unions announced a strike on August 26 to mark their protest over the salary crisis.
Transport minister Antony Raju, labour minister V Sivankutty and finance minister K N Balagopal will hold talks with the trade unions at 3 pm on Wednesday.
The meeting has turned a ray of hope for the KSRTC employees who are in distress due to the delay in salary amid the Onam season.
The government has annonounced bonus and festival allowance for government employees ahead of Onam. But neither KSRTC nor finance department took any action to distribute salary to staff of the public transport service even after 15 days.
Usually, first instalment of the salary is given by 5th of every month. But the authority is continuing to neglect the huge number of employees when the state is all set to celebrate Onam.
KSRTC has asked the finance department to grant Rs 90 crore to solve the salary crisis. If the government fails to grant the fund and settle salary issue, KSRTC employees will call for an indefinite strike, hints sources.
Over 24,000 employees in KSRTC are waiting for the salary of the month of July. Most of the employees are struggling to make both ends meet.
In June, Biju Prabhakar, Transport secretary and CMD of the KSRTC protested openly and even made a move to resign from his position as the finance department was not ready to fund the Corporation.
The CMD said that he can’t side with a situation in which the staff are to struggle during the Onam times and clarified that the Corporation is not responsible for the crisis.
As Transport Minister Antony Raju also stated that the Finance Department is making the situation difficult, it led to a tiff between the finance and transport departments. Whether it’s a fight between the departments or a drama, the families of more than 24000 staff are left in the lurch.
Last Onam, the government had even taken a stand to issue coupons from the stores to buy groceries, textiles and other things instead of paying the salary. Such directions came up on the day before Onam.
