Give me salary or let me to go to Indo-China border: MSRTC driver to CM

This picture has been used for representational purposes

A harried bus driver of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC), one of India's largest bus fleets with over 17,000 buses, wrote a letter to the Chief Minister's Office, seeking his pending salary since March 2020. He also sought permission to go to the Indo-China border to 'fight for the country and die with honour'.

In a letter dated July 2, 2020 (a copy of which is with mid-day), Nalasopara resident Anand Manohar Helgaonkar, posted at Mumbai Central bus depot, said he has been employed with the MSRTC since 1999 and had been unwell recently.

He complained that his mother has also been suffering from a chronic illness and without a regular salary, they had been literally starving. While Helgaonkar had switched off his phone, MSRTC officials said they will investigate the matter.

MSRTC has been playing a key role during the lockdown as an essential service with its buses going to West Bengal to drop migrants and Rajasthan to bring back stranded students.

Echoing Helgaonkar's sentiments, Sandeep Shinde, chairman of the Maharashtra State Transport Kamgar Sanghatna, one of the biggest trade unions, told mid-day that there was indeed a problem in disbursal of regular salaries in Mumbai and the MMR region and he had sought Rs 2,000 crore package from the state government to bail out the undertaking. He added that MSRTC staff have been working day and night in difficult conditions to keep 'Maharashtra running' yet they were treated poorly.

"The MSRTC is losing out Rs 23 crore per day due to non-running of its buses. This is a massive loss. Since this revenue is not coming, the disbursal of salaries has become an issue. Due to support of the government, 75 pc salary for the month of March was disbursed in April, 100 pc salary for the month of April was disbursed in May and 50 pc salary for the month of May was disbursed in June across the state except for Mumbai and MMR region. It is now important to offer the earlier pending salaries and June's salaries on time. We have written to the Chief Minister and Transport Minister's office and also to NCP leader Sharad Pawar to offer Rs 2,000 crore package to bail out the corporation," Sandeep Shinde said.

MSRTC officials said that all decisions regarding the corporation are directly taken by the Transport Minister and there were indications of disbursal of 50 per cent salaries even for June. Despite repeated attempts, Transport Minister Anil Parab remained unavailable for comments.

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