THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: At a time when the KSRTC's daily income has risen to Rs 6 crore, the 24-hour strike held by the employees affected the people as well as the corporation alike. KSRTC lost Rs 5 crore in revenue because of the strike.
Loss of income will also affect the refund to the bank consortium. The KSRTC has to pay Rs 98 lakh per day. If the payment gets delayed by one day, it has to be paid the next day with interest. Yesterday's revenue was barely one crore.
Several people including, workers, employees, civilians and students appearing for exams, suffered due to the strike. Many students failed to appear for their public examinations.
KSRTC trade unions, except the CITU, announced the 24-hour strike in protest against the non-payment of last month's salary. Although the CITU employees had said that they would not participate in the strike, the majority did not show up for work. The government had declared dies-non to counter the strike.
Only 750 buses operated yesterday. 3580 buses conducted service last Friday.
The buses had not conducted service on March 28 and 29 due to the general strike and on November 5, and 6 last year in protest against the delay in the pay revision.
Recognized organizations such as TDF, Transport Employees Sangh(BMS) and CPI's Employees Union went on strike on Thursday after talks with Transport Minister Antony Raju failed. Attempts by the leadership to bring the CITU employees staying away from work to the depots also failed. Most of them had turned their mobiles off. Some unit office-bearers resigned in protest against the decision not to hold the strike.
Not enough money to pay salaries
The trade unions went on strike despite the minister promising in the meeting to pay their salary on May 10. They were not paid salary before Vishu and Easter last month. KSRTC paid the salaries last month by taking an overdraft of Rs 45 crore from SBI. Although the KSRTC demanded Rs 65 crore to pay for the salary this month, the finance department said it would pay Rs 30 crore as usual. A total of 82 crores is required for salary.