Tuesday, 23 November 2021 | PNS | Dehradun
The Uttaranchal Roadways Employees Union (UREU) has said that it would not withdraw its court case from the Supreme Court against the Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (UPSRTC) until the state receives the market price for the shared assets. Last week, the UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath and Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami reached an agreement on asset distribution and decided to withdraw court cases against each other. However, the UREU has decided not to withdraw its case against UP as according to them, Dhami has agreed to accept Rs 205 crore against the market price of about Rs 700 crore.
The secretary of the union, Ashok Chaudhary said that UP runs a profitable transport corporation and Uttarakhand must get its fair share in the assets. He said, “When the Uttaranchal Transport Corporation (UTC) was formed in the year 2003, a notification was issued that UPSRTC will give 13.34 per cent share of its four main assets to the corporation and will pay their market price. At that time, its market price was about Rs 50,000 crore.
However, no initiatives were taken by the state government and the management of UTC since then.” He said when the Uttarakhand roadways employees did not receive salary for six months in 2019, the union filed a PIL in Uttarakhand high court regarding the division of the said assets in UP to provide some financial stability to the corporation here. He said that on the direction of the high court, the central government issued another notification to UP Roadways to pay the market price for the said assets.
When they failed to comply with it again, the high court here issued an order to pay the price of the assets with a first fixed instalment of Rs 28 crores. However, Chaudhary added, the UP Roadways went to the Supreme Court against the order where the union is also fighting against them. He said when the high court and central government have already stated multiple times that UP must pay market price for the said assets, why did Dhami decide to accept Rs 205 crore as per the circle rates for13.34 per cent share of the assets. “Also, that is our right and the CM should not have taken this decision. UTC needs this share.
It is in heavy debt. UP Roadways is in profits and paying Rs 700 crore must not be a big deal for them. We will not withdraw our case unless the state gets its fair share of the assets,” said Chaudhary
