GUWAHATI, Feb 24: The fincial health of cash-starved Assam State Transport Corporation (ASTC) and its expansion plan seems to be badly out of sync, with the Corporation not being able to deposit Provident Fund (PF) premia of employees for 33 months.
This shocking revelation goes in contrast to the Corporation thinking of bringing in fleets of various luxury buses. This serious lapse on the part of the Corporation multiplied the problems of its employees who have to face hurdles while seeking loans from PF as their premia for as many as 33 months have not been deposited.
Sources informed The Sentinel that the Corporation has to deposit around Rs 1 crore every month as PF premia of its employees. It has also been learnt that ASTC owns 740 bighas of unutilized land across the State. Besides this, owing to lack of maintence and repair, while around 200 buses are lying idle in its central workshop at Rupgar in Guwahati, 600 buses are lying idle in its different stations across the State for around 50 per cent or minor defects.
State Transport Workers’ Association general secretary Dwijen Lahkar said: “While ASTC extends service to 70 % of the masses, the IWT (Inland Water Transport) renders service to just 20 per cent.” Against this backdrop, Lahkar wondered ‘as to why the employees of the ASTC do not get any security from the government.’ He also said the Corporation not being able to deposit PF premia of 33 months even as the amount was kept with it from employees’ salaries had its damaging effect on workers’ enthusiasm in rendering their services. He said that they had already moved the Chief Minister seeking security of employees.
The Corporation was formed in 1970 by the State Transport Department on the condition that if, at any point of time, ASTC is required to be revitalized then the corporation would be merged with the department. The Association has already submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister Sarbanda Sonowal and sought his intervention to initiate steps for the welfare of the staffers, Lahkar said.