KOCHI: Crisis-ridden KSRTC faced another setback on Friday after a Kerala High Court division bench set aside a single judge order directing public sector oil marketing companies (OMCs) to sell high-speed diesel to the state-run carrier at the price it is sold to retail outlets. Allowing the appeals filed by three OMCs against the single judge order, the HC observed that the previous directive was legally unsustainable and said it was not the court’s function or forte to decide optimal or competitive price at which diesel should be sold to KSRTC.
The division bench also said the Supreme Court, while dismissing KSRTC’s petition in 2017 against the withdrawal of subsidy for diesel, had observed that subsidy could not be claimed as a right and that no writ was present for extending or continuing the benefit of privilege in the form of concession. The bench said the SC order indicated that the administered pricing mechanism had been dismantled and the price of diesel deregulated in phases. Later, OMCs were given autonomy to fix the price as per their policies. “Notwithstanding the SC order, KSRTC continued to purchase petroleum products from OMCs as a bulk purchaser at the prices they fixed. It had, of its free will and volition, renewed the contract with the OMCs not once but twice on the same terms and conditions for buying diesel. Thus, there is no doubt the petitioner was aware that the fixation of the price for petroleum products was within the domain of OMCs,” said HC.
KSRTC STIR AFFECTS COMMUTERS HARD
T’Puram: Thousands of commuters across the state were hit due to the strike by employees of Kerala State Road Transport Corporation(KSRTC). The 24-hour strike was called by the INTUC and BMS with the support of AITUC. A good majority of employees affiliated to CITU also participated in the strike defying the leadership’s decision to not support the strike. The delayed salary payment in April, on the third week, had invited sharp criticism from employees. The striking employees demanded assurance from the government on salary payment before the 5th of every month. The government had earlier convened a meeting of union representatives to persuade them to call off the strike. Transport Minister Antony Raju said the government would ask the corporation management to pay the salary before 10th.
HC ASKS CARRIER TO DETAIL STEPS TAKEN TO PROTECT ITS ASSETS
Kochi: The High Court has directed the state government to file an affidavit detailing the measures taken to protect the assets of KSRTC so as to bring them into its operation. The court issued the order on a petition alleging that valuable assets of the state-run carrier were going to waste due to negligence. It said the photographs produced by the petitioner speak a thousand words. “We see a large number of buses were kept in the open, exposing them to vagaries of nature, and rusting,” it observed. “So, even if the buses could not be operated for various reasons, the court cannot countenance the fact that a large number of them are being allowed to gather dust for lack of care and accountability. When KSRTC was going through an extreme fiscal crisis, such conditions would have to be looked into very deeply,” it said.