10 November,2020 07:44 AM IST | Mumbai | Rajendra B Aklekar
Manoj Chaudhary and the suicide note he apparently wrote
Rattled by the suicide of an MSRTC bus conductor in Jalgaon who blamed the "Thackeray government" for not paying their past three months' salary, Transport Minister Anil Parab on Monday said the employees will get two months' pending income before Diwali.
Parab said one month's salary will be credited to the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) employees' accounts on Monday, and another month's before Diwali.
Sources said Manoj Chaudhary, the conductor, had loans and was upset with the poor response of the government over the non-payment of his salary.
On Sunday, a bus driver from Ratnagiri, Pandurang Gadade, was found hanging in the MSRTC quarters by his roommate. Gadade's body was discovered at 4 pm the same day.
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"They need not be disheartened and take such extreme steps like suicide. The financial condition of the corporation is bad, but we will find a way out," Parab said. Before Parab announced the decision to pay the pending salaries, MSRTC workers had threatened to hold state-wide protests over the government's failure to disburse MSRTC employees' salaries for the past three months.
Former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis asked if the Uddhav Thackeray-government would take the responsibility for the suicides. "The government did not pay attention to the issue despite our sustained correspondence. Sadly, two innocent families have to face the consequences of government negligence ahead of Diwali," he said.
Parab, who is also the MSRTC chairman, said they had sought R3,600 crore from the state for salaries and other expenses. However, since it was not possible for the government, too, to raise so much money due to losses, MSRTC was contemplating raising money through external sources.
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