Penniless BMTC struggles to pay salaries

Nischith N | NT

Bengaluru: Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), which was labeled as one of the best transport services and the only profitmaking corporation across the country, is now running under loss.

The Corporation, which received little support from the state government, is once again in a crisis over salaries. The BMTC has only paid its employees half their salaries. With January being a month full of festivals, non-payment of salary has angered drivers and conductors.

“We have not been able to celebrate New Year, Sankranti and Pongal with our families this time though Sankranti is our state festival. The salaries are delayed and we get paid half salary every month in spite of the high cost of living in Bengaluru. How can we sustain ourselves in this festival season?”, said Roopa, a BMTC employee.

She also pointed out that officers and heads of departments have been paid but the ground-level staff of nearly 36,000 employees have not been paid.

According to reports, BMTC is running only 5,000 buses out of its fleet of around 6,500. It is also claimed that the number of routes and schedules were much lesser than pre-Covid times. BMTC is running 1,910 plus routes which is around 13% lower than the 2,203 routes it used to operate before the pandemic. Similarly, the number of schedules (total trips per day) have also reduced.

The revenue collected every day can be used only for maintenance work, every day the Corporation is recording a loss of Rs 2 crore.

“Even though BMTC services significantly improved by the end of the second Covid wave, it still did not go up to pre-Covid levels. And now with the city in the middle of a third wave, the corporation is not expected to recover financially anytime soon. Also they started to run high-end buses with 35 percent discount, but commuters are not aware of these services. Though BMTC’s key ridership is low-income groups who have no other way to get to work, even they are scared to commute in BMTC buses because of the fear of contracting Covid. “The corporation should approach the government for help and pay the salary dues”, says Purshotam P, advocate and activist.

The four transport corporations in the state employ over 1.2 lakh people and BMTC alone needs over Rs 65 crore to pay salaries every month. BMTC, MD, Anbu Kumar V said: “This time owing to Covid and limited bus operation salaries got delayed. Pending salary from November and December’s half salary has been paid to all employees by the Corporation. For the remaining salary payment, we are approaching the government”.

According to sources, more than 2,000 employees were recently dismissed for protesting for salary. So, employees are scared to approach any union for help.