AURANGABAD: The Maharashtra State Road Transportation Corporation (MSRTC) has at present suffered bleeding monthly losses to the tune of Rs 400 crore, posing difficulties in even crediting monthly salaries of its over 97,000 staffers.
While MSRTC workforce usually receives salary on seventh day of every month, none of the employees and staffers claimed to have received monthly pay for July till Wednesday.
“The state transportation has monthly expenditure of Rs 700 crore against the depleted income in the range of Rs 290 crore to Rs 300 crore. Even if the Covid-related curbs are relaxed considerably now, the passenger movement is yet nowhere near the pre-Covid times, causing huge losses,” MSRTC spokesperson said on Wednesday.
While the state transportation had introduced special cargo service in May 2019 to boost the revenue during the current pandemic, the initiative could fetch only around Rs 65 crore for the loss-making state transportation. Almost a year after a formal announcement, the MSRTC has failed to come up with fuel stations on its available lands at key places across Maharashtra, including six in Marathwada, as an alternative measure to boost the revenue.
“We required different NOCs from the respective district administration and other government departments for allowing oil companies to start fuel stations. Out of 30 such proposals, we could achieve such NOCs only for Dhule so far,” MSRTC spokesperson said.
Maharashtra ST Karmachari Congress, meanwhile, has demanded financial aid worth Rs 600 crore from the state government for releasing salaries of staffers. “The Covid-19 outbreak has wreaked havoc for MSRTC as it has suffered revenue loss to the tune of Rs 7,000 crore towards passenger movement since March 2020. While staff salaries for January to June could take place due to help from the government only, we demand another such aid for releasing salaries for July now,” union leader Shrirang Barge said.
Maharashtra transport minister Anil Parab could not be reached for his comments despite repeated attempts to contact. Maharashtra ST Karmachari Congress, citing its discussion with the minister of state for transport Satej Patil, has said that the state government was expected to offer another helping hand to MSRTC shortly. The MSRTC spokesperson, however, said that salaries for July are least likely to get credited anytime soon.
