JKRTC rebuts news regarding “irregularities in reimbursement of commission to contractor”

JAMMU, MARCH 01: The Jammu Kashmir Road Transport Corporation (JKRTC), strongly countering the news published in daily Excelsior here today levelling serious allegations against the management of JKRTC for ‘reimbursing commission to a contractor’, said that the news has been published without obtaining and cross checking the actual facts of the case terming it as an attempt to defame the prestigious Corporation of the UT of J&K.

The communiqué, issued here today by the Corporation in this regard, said that the Daily Excelsior needed to be scrutinized thoroughly and the Management of RTC was also required to be contacted to find the actual facts of the case.

The General Manager (Administration) JKRTC has denied all the charges levelled against the management of the Corporation saying that the JKRTC is on the path of progress and has achieved several milestones since the past two years.  The JKRTC has earned all time record revenue of 193 crore and was able to liquidated its liability to a great extent, the 6 months pending salary of the employees was paid, the retrial benefits of retired employees were paid and the Corporation is liquidating its liabilities on monthly basis to provide sigh of relief to its retired employees.

The General Manager (Administration) has said that the important points pertaining to the case has not been taken into consideration that the issue was adjudicated by the High court in the first instance thereafter by the Arbitral Tribunal  and the amicable settlement was placed before the Tribunal. The amicable settlement was the unanimous decision of the management committee after completing all the codal formalities and due procedure, the factually incorrect pointes contained in the said news item are as under;

a.  Till date JKRTC has not released any amount to the M/S Qurishi Transport Company out of compromise deed.

b.   The Contractor approached the then MD for Arbitration but arbitration was not initiated nor the application for arbitration was rejected by the Management of JKRTC in fact the application was not addressed resultantly the corporation was dragged into the court.

c. The FA&CAO was also taken on board and he has also recorded his consent in the file and later on, on his suggestion a legal opinion was sought from the Govt Adv nominated by the Law department.

d. The negotiation has not been initiated on the instance of Contractor rather it was unanimous decision of the  Management keeping in view the interest of the Corporation and  to avoid further legal complicacy and legal expenditures.  After negotiation, the Corporation succeeded to save more than 25 lakh of the Corporation.

e.   The contractor has raised the issue of deduction made on operational cost before the then Management and thereafter before the Hon’ble court.

f.  There shall be no flood gate, because the claim of any contractor was valid within the period of contract. Accordingly M/S Qurishi Transport Company approached the Court within the period of contract and whosoever, worked with the Corporation as an authorized contractor and completed his period of contract cannot claim for the reimbursement.

g.   The Hon’ble Arbitral Tribunal in its Judgment made it clear that the instant order cannot be used as a weapon against the JKRTC.

In view of the above points, it is evident that the news was totally baseless and far from facts. The management has urged upon the news agencies to contact the management of JKRTC before publishing their stories regarding functioning of the Corporation and after taking into consideration the version of JKRTC based on facts.