COIMBATORE: About 94,000 employees of the TNSTC have been fighting an ongoing legal battle with the state government over the lack of revision of their Dearness Allowance (DA) for the past eight years. The pensioners have spent more than Rs 70 lakh to fight the case before the Madras HC and the Supreme Court since 2018, sources said.
According to norms, the transport corporation must revise the DA for pensioners whenever the government enhances the DA for current employees. The pensioners claim that they should be given up to 53% DA from their basic pay at present but are receiving just 5% DA since 2016. Additionally, employees who retired before the implementation of the 7th Pay Commission should be paid 239% DA, but it has been limited to 119%, they said.
As the government has been refusing to increase the DA, the pensioners turned to the judiciary in October 2018 by filing a writ petition at the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court. The court ruled in favor of the pensioners in January 2019, directing the Pension Trust of TNSTC to release the DA as per the periodical revision. Since then, both the Madras HC and the SC have dismissed the government’s plea eight times as of December 9, 2024. However, the state keeps filing appeal after appeal in both courts, the pensioners said.
KS Shanmuga Velayutham, General Secretary of the Pokkuvarathu Kazhaga Oyvu Petra Azhuvalar Sangam, said, “So far, we have spent Rs 70 lakh, collecting contributions from pensioners, including drivers and conductors, to fight the cases in the HC and SC. For attending a hearing in the SC, we have to spend up to Rs 15 lakh. The advocate fee alone is Rs 12.5 lakh for a hearing. The government has been using its power and money to tussle with the employees. The government spends Rs 30 lakh per hearing in the SC, deputing leading advocates. We are tired of this fight.”
Speaking to TNIE, a senior official of the transport department said, “Unlike other government retirees, the pension is distributed by the pension trust for transport staff from their own corpus fund of Rs 30,000 crore. The trust is receiving Rs 85 crore as interest from the corpus, but it needs to pay Rs 130 crore to the pensioners per month.
The trust is unable to pay that sum.” Official sources said the transport department must pay Rs 174 crore per month instead of Rs 130 crore for pension disbursal if they have to comply with the DA revision order. Additionally, an arrear of Rs 3,028 crore must be paid. It will be difficult for the government to fulfill these obligations, the sources added.