Free ride, travel concessions hurt KSRTC: Rajamanickam 

KSRTC wants to limit free ride and travel concessions by students, as it is resulting in a burden of `105 crore every year for the ailing state carrier.
Free ride, travel concessions hurt KSRTC: Rajamanickam 

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: KSRTC wants to limit free ride and travel concessions by students, as it is resulting in a burden of `105 crore every year for the ailing state carrier. KSRTC MD M G Rajamanickam has written a letter to the Transport Secretary in this regard. The free ride for students upto Plus Two was imposed on KSRTC in February this year by the previous government as a populist announcement before Assembly elections. With the ride becoming free, students flocked to KSRTC buses and ticket-taking passengers began avoiding crowded buses. This caused a shortage of 1.5 lakh passengers daily, which costs `63 crore every year.

The letter states that KSRTC charges 17.32 percent concession charge though it could extract 25 percent as per a government order. This is applicable to other students who study in private institutions after paying hefty fee. The loss to KSRTC from concession is estimated to be `42 crore yearly. The KSRTC is not reimbursed by the government for social liabilities. Rajamanickam’s letter demands that free rides be limited to students from economically weaker families and 25 percent concession be limited to students in government and government aided schools and colleges.   

KSRTC has sought to limit maximum trip distance of private buses to 140 kilometres to stop them from using their service as long-distance super-class service. The UDF government allowed conversion of 155 private fast passenger stage carriage permits, 64 superfast stage carriage permits and 22 super express private stage carriage permits as limited stop ordinary service on February 8.  This has led to a revenue loss to the tune of `2 lakh per day for KSRTC. A recent SC verdict has favoured KSRTC in keeping 241 super class services exclusively in its domain. The KSRTC has a total debt of around `3,000 crore and managed to pay full salaries to its employees only on Friday. Transport Minister A K Saseendran said he was unaware of the letter by KSRTC MD. He had said the government was not planning to immediately revoke free ride to students.

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