MTC plays blame game over facing huge losses

Chennai: There seems to be no signs of recovery and improvements with the state transport corporation as Comptroller and Auditor General of India in its recent order came down heavily against the state transport corporations and the MTC that caters to Chennaiites. According to the report, the transport corporations of Tamil Nadu by the end of 2015-16 accumulated losses of Rs 16,145 crores out of which MTC alone contributed Rs 2,502 crore. The CAG also gave an example of the poor state of administration with the Coimbatore Transport Corporation, where the administrators rejected a valid tender of an advertising company resulting in a loss of Rs 9.58 crore. Admitting consecutive losses over the years MTC insiders on condition of anonymity, said, “There are numerous additional workers from the political parties who are tagged as officials of MTC but never work. Excess officials with no productivity also result in huge loss of money, each one gets a bonus of Rs 16,500 every month and there are at least four such people in each depot.” He further added that many times, a driver involved in an accident is suspended when the mistake lies with the branch authorities.