Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation staffers envy temporary drivers’ salary

PUNE: Ravindra Sanap (name changed on request), a driver with the MSRTC participating in the ongoing strike, used to get a monthly salary of around Rs14,000.
“It is disheartening to know that the temporary drivers the MSRTC recently hired are getting a monthly payment of almost Rs25,000, without proper driving skills. How can homes be run with just Rs14,000? If MSRTC can afford to pay those temporary drivers such a large amount, what is the harm in using the same money and raising our salaries as per other state government employees? The ongoing agitation is for the same reason and it will continue,” he said.
The situation on the ground for the state transport body is not at all good, despite a labour court on Monday deeming the ongoing strike illegal. While some officials were hoping that workers would return to work now, a section of officials felt that it wouldn’t work.
According to the figures provided, of the total 16,500 buses in the MSRTC fleet statewide, just 7,140 buses are operational. “While 226 depots statewide of the total of 250 depots are operational, the movement of buses is less. Around 62,000 workers are still on strike and just 26,619 of them have come back to work. One can see the figures and guess the situation,” an official said.
In the Pune division, of more than 600 buses in the fleet, just 199 buses are currently operating. And of the total of 3,939 workers, 2,547 of them are on strike. “We have got around 50 temporary drivers from the headquarters and 45 of them have started to drive. The MSRTC has hired some companies, which are provided the drivers and payment goes to the companies. Each of these drivers are being paid a remuneration of Rs23,900 in addition to GST,” an official in Pune said.
In total, MSRTC has hired 400 such private drivers on a temporary basis in the first phase, officials said.