THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala State Transport Corporation’s (KSRTC) decision to terminate the services of 2,107 empanelled drivers as the deadline set by the Supreme Court expired on June 30 has affected its schedules across the state.
Over 2,000 schedules were cancelled on Sunday. They include 346 low-floor JNNURM schedules. While KSRTC operates less number of schedules on Sundays, the number of schedules operated on June 30 was 596 lesser compared to the services on June 23.
The situation is likely to prevail on Monday as well before KSRTC makes alternative work arrangement, said an officer. Against the total schedules of 5,312, only 3,640 were operated on Sunday. As many as 346 out of 526 JNNURM schedules were cancelled, taking the total schedule cancellations to 2,018.
The southern region was the worst affected after the services of close to 1,500 temporary workers were terminated. It was followed by north zone (371) and central zone (257). KSRTC management said it had made work arrangements to reduce the inconvenience to the public.
“We have advanced duty days of crew by a day for smoother operation on Monday,” said executive director of KSRTC (South Zone) G Anilkumar. KSRTC decided to sack empanelled drivers en masse following a Supreme Court directive to complete the procedure before June 30.