DTC fails to pay salaries, employees threaten stir

With the employee unions threatening to stage protests if salaries are not paid by Monday, Transport Minister Gopal Rai said the government will use the DTC’s fixed deposits to pay employees. “We will use the FDs to pay the employees even if it means that the government or the DTC will incur losses,” Rai said.

The DTC’s fixed deposits are made up of employee provident fund, and loans and grants given to the DTC by Centre or state to improve infrastructure, a senior official said. If these FDs are exhausted in paying salaries, DTC may face a financial crunch when it comes to upgrading infrastructure, the official said.

It is not just the drivers and other employees who have not been paid. Even senior DTC officials are awaiting their salaries. While officials are tight-lipped about the matter, with no salary reaching their accounts, DTC employees are planning to go on a protest if the matter is not resolved by Monday.

Sukhbir Saini, president of Delhi Parivahan Majdoor Sangh, said the employees are extremely “stressed” over the matter.

“We have not received salaries and in the absence of a chairman for the DTC, we are forced to approach junior officials — who too have not got their salaries — with our grievance. We have no option but to protest if salaries are not disbursed by Monday,” Saini said.

He said approximately 48,000 employees — including those on contract and pension holders — have not received their dues for over a month.

Meanwhile, sources in the department said salaries of DTC employees are likely to be paid this coming week. “We have been given hints that after the vote on account is passed on March 23, the salaries will be disbursed,” a senior DTC official said.