DTC contractual staff knock at court’s door

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 21

A section of drivers and conductors working on contract basis in the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) has approached the Delhi High Court seeking regular job and salary in accordance with the permanent staff.

In a petition filed in the high court, nearly 12,000 contractual staff has been demanding a consolidated salary of Rs 18,000. The high court has fixed the date on August 28 for detailed hearing of their problems.

According to a DTC contractual employee, “The DTC is giving us step-motherly treatment. It pays us at the rate of Rs. 4/km. For a day, a vehicle passing through jams runs about 70 to 100 km and none of the contractual driver is paid for more than 25 days of driving. This way we earn between Rs 7,000 to 12,000 monthly. To earn more money they drive rashly which put passengers’ and other people’s life on risk. Therefore, the matter should be sorted out and wages of the contractual staff should be at par with the regular employees.”

According to another contractual employee, nearly 12,000 contractual drivers and conductors are working with the DTC. They are in contract for 7 to 15 years, whereas the number of permanent drivers is about four thousand. Worth noting is that earlier also questions were raised regarding the recruitment of the drivers by the AAP party when it came to power, but nothing has done so far.