TSRTC staff push for release of Rs 675 crore

HYDERABAD: Hit hard by the pandemic, employees of Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) have urged the government to intervene and ensure release of Rs 675 crore to the credit cooperative society (CCS) account so that they can avail loans and meet other expenditure.
In a representation to the chairman of TSRTC Employees’ Thrift and CCS Limited, the employees urged him to release Rs 675 crore along with Rs 96 crore interest to the CCS account.B Mahesh, secretary of TSRTC Employees’ Thrift and CCS Ltd, pointed out that several employees had taken loans from private moneylenders in the hope that the CCS amount would be released into the account.
“We have approached the corporation several times to release the amount to the CCS account, but in vain. Apart from this, several loan applications of the employees have been pending since January 20, 2019. Fixed deposit and retirement settlement benefits of some employees are pending since August 2019. Pension payments are also pending from June 2019,” he said. He added that they were unable to clear their bank loans as the corporation was sitting over these payments for over a year now.
TSRTC financial advisor N Ramesh on Thursday said the issue was pending with the management. “It is a big amount and we do not have money to pay them,” he told TOI. When asked about the delay in payments despite a high court order in 2019, he said: “I cannot comment.” Mahesh, however, said they understand the current situation on account of Covid-19. “But, we expect the corporation to at least release a part of the amount, considering the long wait of 15 months.”In February this year, MD of TSRTC Sunil Sharma had told the employees at a review meeting that the funds for CCS and PF were being mobilised. CCS members, however, alleged that the amount had not been paid till date despite the high court order to transfer at least Rs 200 crore to the CCS account.