A top official of the Kerala road transport courted controversy by suggesting privatisation of Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) to overcome financial troubles. Chairman and Managing Director of KSRTC Biju Prabhakar was addressing a public gathering on Friday, November 11, when he said that the way forward for state-owned KSRTC which is going through a financial struggle, was through privatisation.This did not go down well with the Communist Party of India (CPI), an ally in the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) government in Kerala.
“When it becomes difficult to sustain a public enterprise, which is already suffering from massive loss of more than Rs 60,000 crore, it might be necessary to privatise that enterprise. I’m a staunch advocate for this kind of privatisation. Even if I was just a secretary of KSRTC, I would have also advised for its privatisation,” said Prabhakar, while speaking at the 22nd conference of Kerala State Employees Sangh, a union associated with the RSS-backed Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh.
Reacting to the comments made by the KSRTC MD, Kanam Rajendran, the state secretary of CPI, said that privatisation was not the LDF government’s policy and it was definitely not the policy of the workers’ unions. “At a time when the LDF government has been protesting against various privatisation policies of the Union government, an officer from Kerala is speaking in support of it and claiming that it’s the only way forward. This is a disciplinary violation, to say the least,” said Rajendran. He added that the Kerala government ought to examine whether Prabhakar should continue as KSRTC Managing Director.
In his address on Friday, Prabhakar also said that he was concerned about the approach shown by both the state and Union governments towards public transport. He said all the attention and discussion was about water metro (ferry services) and metro rail, while very little concern was shown towards the KSRTC buses, which were crucial in providing last mile connectivity.