KTC in reverse gear
The Kadamba Transport Corporation seems to be now and then embroiled in employee protests, agitations, debt and allegations of corruption. The latest protest threat by the drivers and allied employees is another chapter in this saga. Their grievances seem to be related to discrimination in payment of the Golden Jubilee bonus and Sixth Pay Commission arrears, demand for reduction in the provident fund deduction from 12 per cent to 10 percent and career advancement.
Prima facie the employees seem to have a case, given that other government employees have not only been paid the arrears long ago, but may have even exhausted them. Whatever the merits of the case, the crux of the issue is that the flagship public sector corporation is a non-performer and hobbling along in reverse gear on aggregate.
Originally founded to break the back of the then powerful private bus lobby which supported the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, the first Congress Chief Minister Pratapsing Rane’s master stroke changed the political equations in Goa. It created a government monopoly in the heydays of nationalisation when the state enterprises were presumed to work towards the welfare of the people and were positioned as generating profits for equitable distribution of wealth.
Subsequently, though the private bus lobby was able to stubbornly defy all Motor Vehicle rules in terms of non usage of uniform, non issuance of tickets, overcrowding of buses and unruly behaviour of its staff towards passengers, it lost its political clout wielded in the 70’s.
Though the founding of the KTC was a political game changer, economically its performance has not been anything to write to Karl Marx about. Its new fleet has been subject to constant ‘breakdowns’, in the past there was rampant corruption with new tyres and spares being sold and replaced with old ones. But since public memory is short, probably no one recalls that none have been punished for engaging in corruption.
Presently, the KTC is riding against the current economic trends of neo-liberalism as the government gave it three crucial trunk routes as monopolies, by nationalising them and eliminating private competition. That there sometimes may have been connivance between private operators and KTC drivers/conductors to make trips with few passengers to the benefit of private operators, incurring losses for the corporation, may also have been one of the reasons for nationalisation. But KTC incurring losses despite creating a monopoly on three routes is incomprehensible.
The common alibi for KTC’s loss making is attributed to its services running on remote and unprofitable routes. But the question is does KTC have a strategy to run services on remote and unviable routes? Has it adequately experimented with pricing, synchronising, and connecting services? Do passengers with monthly passes travel on the shuttle services at subsidized rates? How is the repair of vehicles managed? What is the average speed per kilometre of these buses? Why for instance are private operators of school bus services making profits, while KTC school buses incur losses, if at all?
Government enterprises cannot be run with the aim of making losses or by condoning them. The entire system has to be geared for profits and deliver good public services.
The chief minister has stuck his neck out at the 2013-14 budget by promising to make KTC a debt-free corporation by clearing a Rs 42.5 crore KTC loan taken from the Goa State Co-operative Bank.
However the overall loan burden of the KTC is close to Rs 60 crore, the interest too has been ticking like a time bomb. Though the cooperative bank loan has been cleared, the KTC chairman has said the entire loan will be cleared in three years as assured by the chief minister.
With a budget allocation of Rs 113 crore and new buses added to the fleet it is hoped that the present KTC management is able to go beyond the perception that this is a milking cow, as previous governments and chairmen have done. It should learn from advanced countries how bus fleets are run and maintained, if indigenous strategies if any, do not deliver. The staff too has to pull up its socks and deliver responsible, courteous and efficient service to the public, to justify the faith reposed in KTC by the government and the tax payers.
