MTC plays blame game over facing huge losses

Chennai: There seems to be no signs of recovery and improvements with the state transport corporation as Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) in its recent order came down heavily against the state transport corporations and the MTC that caters to Chennaiites. According to the report, the transport corporations of Tamil Nadu by the end of 2015-16 accumulated losses of Rs 16,145 crores out of which MTC alone contributed Rs 2,502 crore. The loss has surged by 19 percent when compared to the previous year and this trend, according to transport department sources has been prevailing since 2005.

The CAG also gave an example of the poor state of administration with the Coimbatore Transport Corporation, where the administrators rejected a valid tender of an advertising company resulting in a loss of Rs 9.58 crore.  Admitting consecutive losses over the years MTC insiders on condition of anonymity, said, “There are numerous additional workers from the political parties who are tagged as officials of MTC but never work. Excess officials with no productivity also result in huge loss of money, each one gets a bonus of Rs 16,500 every month and there are at least four such people in each depot.”

He further added that many times, a driver involved in an accident is suspended when the mistake lies with the branch authorities. “The driver involved in the bus accident due to a broken seat on Gemini flyover in 2012 was removed immediately, but he went to the High Court that later ordered that the driver has to be given a 100 percent salary for all the four years. There are many such pending cases draining the resource of MTC,” he said.

The government delay in releasing the subsidy also adds to the revenue losses and for fiscal 2015-16 the subsidy amount pending is around '500 crore.  “At times, the junior workers who are paid Rs 300 fake the roster with the names of senior staff to make a quick buck and get an additional trip payment of '700. In 2016, this particular technical loss in which juniors are paid the trip charge of seniors alone had escalated the loss to Rs 45 lakh,” he explained. Not to forget, the alarming number of accidents that happened this year due to ill maintenance. As the vehicles do not have insurance, the compensation amount is borne by MTC.