'Condemned' buses missing from CSTC depots

A special audit conducted by the state finance department has revealed that 20 buses, which were declared condemned and unsold by the Calcutta State Transport Corporation (CSTC), are not traceable. Despite repeated queries made by the state finance (internal audit) department, the CSTC and the state transport department have failed to come up with a viable explanation. According to estimate made by the finance department, the reserved price of the 20 buses was worked out to be Rs.17.33 lakh on the basis of the rates fixed under tender floated by the CSTC in 2006-2007. Thus there was a loss of revenue to that tune due to the non-disposal of those buses. The special audit was conducted recently on condemnation of buses of CSTC during the period from April 2005 to March 2010. The Left Front government was in power during that period.

The state owned CSTC, South Bengal State Transport Corporation (SBSTC), North Bengal State Transport Corporation (NBSTC) and Calcutta Tramways Corporation (CTC) were in the news recently as these have been incurring heavy losses for several years and the cash strapped government was finding difficulty in providing fund for the employees' salaries. The state transport minister Madan Mitra even went to the extent saying that a number of irregular recruitments were done during the Left regime and the government won't be responsible for paying salaries of those 'bogus employees'. However, after initial resistance the government gave in and started releasing fund for the ailing state transport corporations'.

But at the same time the government initiated a special internal audit on the financial health of the state transport corporations, which revealed among other things a number of irregularities.