The Kerala High Court has directed the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) to file in two weeks an affidavit containing the details including its recruitment policy, the actual requirement of drivers and the basis on which the requirement is arrived at.
Justice A.K. Jayasankaran Nambiar on Thursday also directed the Corporation to furnish the details regarding the number of schedules being operated by it, the current driver-schedule ratio and the basis of its fixation.
Drivers and schedules
The court asked the KSRTC to indicate in the affidavit the basis on which the reduction in the ratio between the driver and schedules was brought about. Besides, the affidavit should contain the relevant portion of any report relied upon for arriving at the ratio reduction.
The KSRTC should also give the details regarding the drivers being engaged on a daily wage basis and should also state as to whether such appointments were only for filling leave vacancies or for making up for the shortfall on any given day for operating the schedules, the court ordered.
Moreover, the affidavit of the KSRTC should indicate the number of drivers who have retired or have left the service for other reasons from January 1, 2020 till date, the court said.
PSC rank list
The court issued the directives on a writ petition filed by Nideesh Kumar and other candidates on the PSC rank list for KSRTC drivers, seeking a directive to the PSC to advise candidates from the rank list published on August 23, 2012 to fill the 2,455 vacancies reported to the PSC.
KSRTC submission
Meanwhile, in a fresh affidavit, the KSRTC submitted that it had decided to reduce staff strength in all categories to bring it on a par with the national average staff strength. As of now, the corporation was operating 4,500 services on an average a day, for which, 10,800 drivers were required.
