Assam State Transport Corporation Lakhimpur Division Employees Demand Release of Pending Salary

* State Government urged to take steps to rejuvenate ASTC

A CORRESPONDENT

LAKHIMPUR: Will the red buses running along the roads across the State under Assam State Transport Corporation (ASTC) disappear very soon? This question has become the widely discussed topic in Lakhimpur due to alleged chaos in the administrative machinery of the ASTC.

As a result of this, a total of 100 employees of ASTC Lakhimpur Division have been deprived of their salary since the month of July. These disgruntled employees on Thursday attempted to gherao the Divisional Superintendent (DS) in-charge, Abhijit Pegu who was not present in his office. However, they strongly demanded that their pending salary should be released immediately.

They alleged that the State Government and the ASTC authority had played a partial role while paying the salary to the employees of the Corporation because only the employees of Lakhimpur and Silchar divisions were being deprived of the salary. Though the employees of Jorhat division were deprived of their salary too, a section of employees of that division received their pending salary on Thursday.

A total of 100 employees are working in ASTC Lakhimpur Division from Dhalpur to Jonai Stations covering Lakhimpur and Dhemaji districts. Out of them, 49 are regular employees while 51 are contractual. An amount of Rs. 18,44,621 is required to pay these employees per month. The ASTC pays the employees as per earning of the division concerned. From that aspect, the Lakhimpur division earns an average amount of Rs 15 lakh-Rs 16 lakh from buses, Rs 4 lakh-Rs 5 lakh as share money from the private buses running under ASTC and Rs 1 lakh from other sources per month. The average gross amount of this is Rs 18 lakh. But this amount has to be spent as the maintenance expenditure of the buses and that is why the ASTC Lakhimpur Division has not been able to deposit any revenue during the past months, said sources.

In this regard, the employees of the division unanimously alleged negligence on the part of the State Government with regard to rejuvenating the corporation from its critical condition. At present, a total of 20 red buses have been lying useless in Lakhimpur ASTC workshop since February. These buses will be operational again if the government spends a little amount for their repair. Due to the shortage of buses, the division is not potent enough to earn profit which was once more than Rs 45 lakh. Under such circumstances, 33 out of 40 drivers and employees are sitting idle.

“Due to lack of efficient administrators, wrong policies of the State Government, showing soft corner to private sector buses instead of ASTC’s own buses are root causes for the fall of the corporation. On the other hand, the appointment of contractual employees for only 11 months has also affected the activities of the corporation,” alleged Rajen Saikia, the State president of State Transport Workers’ Association.

Further, the employees of Lakhimpur Division complained against the Divisional Superintendent (DS) in-charge. They alleged that the DS, who was contractually appointed in the division for 11 months only, was non-cooperative. He has already stopped paying the trip allowance to the employees and forced only seven-night superbus drivers to work for the whole month. He has caused dissatisfaction among the employees, interfering in the duties of the Station Superintendent and other employees.