CITU doesn’t have that defect; Anathalavattom Anandan slams Transport Minister

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Salaries will be distributed at the KSRTC on Friday. The management has taken an overdraft of Rs 50 crores for distributing salary for the month of April. The KSRTC management has decided to distribute the salary without waiting for the government’s assistance.

The KSRTC had earlier received Rs 30 crore from the government. The salaries will be distributed on Friday using this money as well. In the first phase, salaries will be paid to drivers and conductors. The distribution, which begins on Friday evening, is expected to be completed by Saturday evening.

Meantime, CITU Anathalavattom Anandan has publicly rejected Transport Minister Antony Raju. The minister’s statement that the government will not help KSRTC has led to huge protests among the employees. Seeking government’s assistance is seen as a shortcoming by certain people. However, the CITU have no such defect. It is the government’s responsibility to protect the public sector, he said while inaugurating a CITU protest demanding to resolve the salary crisis.

The major demand of the protest is to find a permanent solution to the crisis by ensuring pay on the fifth day of every month. While the central government is privatizing public sector undertakings, the state government’s stance is against it.

In such a situation, the minister completely abandoning a public sector undertaking has led to protests among employees. The CITU will soon formulate an alternative policy on how to protect the KSRTC and will submit a report before the government next month. He also added that the minister’s statement was not in line with the LDF government.