THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Cooperation Minister Kadakampally Surendran alleged there were efforts to sabotage the disbursal of KSRTC pension. In a statement, he said 26 KSRTC pensioners had committed suicide during the tenure of the UDF Government. He said it was in the wake of the severe crisis in pension disbursal the Chief Minister had asked him to consider the cooperative sector to take over the pension liabilities of KSRTC for a certain period of time.
Following this, the decision was taken to sanction Rs 219 crore to clear the pension arrears. Moreover, pension for the next six months will be paid without default. The government would guaranty the loan with 10 percent interest. Kadakampally said some vexed interests did not want to solve the issue as they want more pensioners to commit suicide and thereby leave the government in a crisis. He said so far around 200 societies had come forward to mobilize Rs 1000 crore for the KSRTC.
14 societies from Kozhikode district had mobilised Rs140 crores, while four societies from Ernakulam district mobilised 50 crores. Three societies each from Palakkad and Thiruvananthapuram districts have mobilised Rs 30 crore each. So far Rs 250 crore was mobilised under the consortium. Kadakampally said once the financial position of the KSRTC got stabilised it would directly manage the pension commitments.