KOCHI: The KSRTC on Tuesday approached the High Court seeking a directive to Popular Front of India (PFI) state general secretary A Abdul Sathar to pay a compensation of Rs 5.06 crore to the corporation for the damage and revenue loss caused during the recent hartal.
The PFI hartal on Friday turned violent with the protesters throwing stones at KSRTC buses, smashing the windscreens and damaging seats of 58 buses. As many as 10 employees and one passenger were injured.
The KSRTC submitted that as the hartal was against the action of the Union government, there was absolutely no reason for the protesters to attack the buses owned by the corporation.
“Another interesting fact is that when the payment of salary to the KSRTC employees was delayed, the PFI leaders were at the forefront, along with many other political parties, protesting and demanding timely disbursal of the salary. The KSRTC never expected that the very same people who raised their voices to save the institution would take the extreme step of destroying the buses and causing loss to the corporation,” it submitted.
The corporation, which usually earns around Rs 3.72 crore from the service of 62% of its buses, had made only Rs 2.13 crore on the hartal day. The approximate daily income of the KSRTC is Rs 6 crore and interruption of the services due to hartal resulted in a loss of Rs 4 crore.
The KSRTC has to pay Rs 1.10 crore daily to the consortium of banks as interest for the financial assistance availed. In fact, the corporation has been trying its best to increase the daily collection from Rs 6 crore to Rs 8 crore as it is the only way to survive on its own without any financial assistance. The average daily collection in the past 10 days was more than Rs 6 crore, and therefore, the corporation has sustained a huge pecuniary loss, it submitted.