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Govt agrees to merge DA with basic pay

 
Public transport buses will be back on the City roads and across the State on Saturday.

The two-day old strike by Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) and Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) employees was called off late Friday night, after a marathon meeting. Deputy Chief Minister and Transport Minister R Ashoka announced this to waiting mediapersons after a prolonged meeting with the joint committee of the striking employees. 

The employees decided to withdraw the strike after the State offered to merge 86 per cent of their Dearness Allowance with the basic pay. This will be applicable to employees of all the four state transport corporations. Ashoka said this measure would place an additional burden of Rs 250 crore on the government.

The State also agreed to increase the pay of trainee employees by Rs 1,000, taking their total monthly salary to Rs 8,000. A key demand of the employees was to address the unnecessary extension of the training period by three to four years, and in some cases, to even up to 11 years. The government has now decided to regularise the services of trainees immediately on completion of their training period of two years. During the strike period, many transport depot officials had been transferred.

Acceding to another demand, the State agreed to cancel all the transfers made after March 13, 2012.

To address the employees’ remaining demands, Ashoka said a committee including the employees’ representatives will be formed under the KSRTC Director (Personnel). Within a month, these issues too will be sorted out, said the minister.

Following the resolution of the strike, the government will release all those arrested, and withdraw notices issued to employees for boycotting work.

Before the meeting, Ashoka had reiterated that wage revision would not be effected as it would “burden the people of the State”. A key demand of the employees was that the already implemented wage hike of 10 per cent should be treated as interim relief and the talks had to continue for a wage revision.

All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) leader, Anantha Subba Rao, thanked the government for the outcome of the negotiatons. He requested all the employees to return to work on Saturday morning, and forget the unfortunate episodes of the last two days. He urged them to cooperate with the officials to ensure better service to the commuters.

Earlier on Friday, the State had toughened its stand slapping criminal cases on 3,000 KSRTC employees who indulged in violent activities. Ashoka had informed that 200 buses were damaged and three drivers were injured by the protesters. The minister also announced Rs 25,000 compensation for the victims.

Rampant corruption

In response to the allegations of rampant corruption within transport corporations, Ashoka said so far five divisional commissioners have been transferred following complaints. Employees have alleged that monitoring squads and senior officials demand bribes from drivers and conductors for sanctioning leaves and change of routes. “ADG rank officers have been deployed to monitor this. ”

He alleged that the unions were also not allowing him to streamline the corporations. “I want to evolve a  policy when it comes to allocating routes to drivers by introducing a lottery or rotation based system. But senior drivers, part of these unions, are not allowing me to do so,” he added.