Members of Uttaranchal Roadways Employees Union have resumed protesting against the Uttarakhand Roadways Corporation at the office of divisional manager of operation.
The union’s general secretary Ashok Chaudhary said that the employees have still not been paid their pending salaries of last two months. He alleged that some senior officers of the corporation are paying hiked salaries to their favourites. He also said that the eateries in tie-up with UTC serve stale, inferior quality food and are not even equipped with decent public facilities for the passengers as well as the employees.
Speaking to the media, the union’s official spokesman Vipin Chaudhary said, “Our basic issues are mismanagement in UTC and the shortcoming of the system because of which the corrupt are roaming free. Our members have not been paid salaries for past two months. About 60 per cent employees here are contract wage workers who are finding it difficult to survive.” He further said, “Then there are the cases of corruption within the management which are not being investigated properly.
There is a case from Srinagar depot, where an employee went to a union programme taking a bus with him off route.
There are about 200 unauthorised buses operating in the state. It is because of the poor management of UTC that loss is being incurred, resulting in our pending salaries.
Regarding the eateries with which UTC has an agreement, officials do not visit these places to check the quality of services they are providing. Taking advantage of this, the eatery owner and employees misbehave with the roadways staff and passengers.
According to the agreement letter they are supposed to write the fixed rate and give token, but this is not happening. The least UTC can do is send some of their officials to visit these places periodically.”