A Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) employee, who was facing financial crisis, died by suicide at his residence in Jalgaon. The incident came to fore on Monday morning. The man allegedly hanged himself to death at his residence.
"For the last three months he didn't get his salary. He has blamed the Thackeray government responsible for his death," said the brother of deceased.
Manoj Anil Chowdhary, who was working at Jalgaon depot, has left behind a suicide note saying he took the drastic step due to low salary and irregularities in the ST Corporation.
"My son used to work for the MSRTC and was posted at the Jalgaon depot. He was dealing with loans and used to get erratic and low salary and committed suicide because of it," says Anil Choudhry, father of the deceased MSRTC bus conductor.
The 30-year-old victim in his suicide note said that the working methods of ST Corporation and Thackeray government (Shiv Sena) are responsible for the drastic step he took.
Meanwhile, the MSRTC employee unions have been staging agitation to press their demand for the payment of three months’ salary, which comes to INR 900 crore along with arrears of October pay and arrears of dearness allowance. The employees will go on a symbolic hunger strike at their residence with their entire family to draw the government’s attention.
They are agitated that, despite the assurances from Transport Minister Anil Parab, there has been no action so far, especially with Diwali around the corner. There are more than 98,000 employees who have been anxiously waiting to receive their salaries since August. The MSRTC workers were working under extremely adverse conditions during the COVID-19 period. However, there is huge dissatisfaction among the workers as they are not getting paid for the work they have done.
In response to ST workers’ agitation, Maharashtra State Transport Minister Anil Parab promised that the employees would get one month’s salary on Monday itself. “Before Diwali, they will get 2 month's salary. They need not be disheartened and take extreme steps like suicide. Economic condition is bad now but we'll find away.”
“Due to coronavirus pandemic, ST could not make the income that they usually do. Therefore, the accumulated loss of ST has also increased to Rs 5,000 crore. However, prior to that, the income had completely stopped. As a result, the workers have not received their 3 month’s salary,” added Parab.
On October 30, Parab had sought Rs 3,600 crore from the state government on an urgent basis for MSRTC to disburse salaries and keep its operations on. Even though MSRTC has resumed its services, its buses are plying at full capacity. Passengers are still reluctant and do not want to take any chance in the pandemic. The MSRTC needs Rs 292 crore per month for paying salaries.
Share
Tweet
