The worst fears of many of the state transport employees may come true, as the cash-strapped West Bengal government is likely to ask the transport corporations to rationalise its workforce to become self-reliant.
While in response to a query on the same, state transport minister Madan Mitra gave a hint saying, “doctors always advise to cut flab”, officials say government has already taken a decision in this regard.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was scheduled to hold a meeting on Wednesday here to discuss the financial condition of the state transport undertakings where she was expected to convey government's decision to the corporations. But the meeting was postponed as Banerjee is currently busy in election campaign in Manipur.
There are about 18,000 employees in the five state-run transport corporations -- Calcutta State Transport Corporation (CSTC), North Bengal State Transport Corporations (NBSTC), South Bengal State Transport Corporation (SBSTC) and West Bengal Surface Transport Corporations (WBSTC).
The state government has already declared that it will withdraw annual Rs 600 crore subsidy from transport corporations. “The state government is incurring losses of Rs 600 crore annually to provide subsidy to the ailing five corporations with nearly 18,000 employees. We are not in a position to continue that. They better pull up their socks or they will head for a natural death,” Mitra said.
“We have not taken any decision to stop salary, but it is already getting delayed since October. It is in their own interest that they must begin to work if they are to get their salary on time. We need at least Rs 3,000 crore to clear the backlog,” he said.
According to Mitra, there are thousands of 'ghost-employees' in the transport corporations who “were employed by the previous Left Front government” and “were not coming to work regularly, but getting salaries.”
Meanwhile, an employee of Calcutta Tramways Company (CTC) in Howrah namely Vivek Sing committed suicide on Wednesday as he was not allegedly getting salary for the last five months. The incident prompted Mitra to hold a press conference later in the day, where he announced,
“Government will not immediately withdraw the susbsidy...This will happen in phases.”
An official in South Bengal State Transport Corporation (SBSTC) said, the state government is also mulling voluntary retirement schemes for employees to rationalise the workforce.
A proposal has also been mooted by chief minister Mamata Banerjee to merge the five transport corporations transport corporations into one which will also enable the government to restructure them financially and in terms of man power resources, the official added.
