This comes even as shortfall of drivers has been leading to cancellation of services
Kochi: The Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) would start issuing appointment letters to 1,520 candidates from the PSC rank list from Friday onwards to fill vacancies to conductor posts. However, nothing has been said about meeting the shortfall of 386 drivers.
“As of now, there are vacancies for 386 drivers and 1,700 conductors. Though the vacancies were reported to the PSC long ago, only the conductors’ list is ready”, said K.M.Sreekumar, Executive Director (Administration).
This comes even as shortfall of drivers has been leading to cancellation of services in depots like Thiruvananthapuram, Kottayam and Pathanamthitta.
“The driver shortage woes can be addressed in two ways. One is to correct the disparity in deploying the 1,984 drivers recruited early last year. Currently, there is an excess of drivers in depots located in the northern parts while the number is very thin in depots in the southern region. Another issue is the appointment of M-panel (temporary) drivers,” said a senior KSRTC official.
The unions have demanded that the current M-panel staff be made permanent. “There is a provision to make M-panel employees permanent if they have completed five years in service. Currently, there are over 5,000 such temporary employees. However, the last time the management made the temporary staff permanent was in 2011 and 2001,” said K.K. Divakaran, state working president, Kerala State Road Transport Employees' Association.
The M-panel employees form one-fourth of the total staff strength of 36, 000.
( Source : dc correspondent )
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