Maharashtra announced a ₹10,000 Diwali bonus for around 83,000 MSRTC employees.
The employees’ DA will increase from 58% to 60%.
Eligible staff will also receive a ₹12,500 festival advance.
Around 83,000 employees of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) will receive a Diwali bonus of ₹10,000 each, while their dearness allowance (DA) will rise from 58% to 60%, Transport Minister Pratap Sarnaik announced on Thursday.
Eligible employees will also get an advance of ₹12,500 for the festival, Sarnaik said. He announced the measures at a meeting with representatives of several MSRTC employee unions at the Transport Commissioner’s office in Bandra.
The bonus and DA increase will add around ₹160 crore to the state-run corporation’s expenses, the minister said. He acknowledged that MSRTC was facing financial difficulties but said the government remained committed to ensuring that its employees could celebrate Diwali.
“ST officers and employees work round the clock to provide safe travel to lakhs of passengers. Providing them a bonus on the occasion of Diwali is not merely an act of generosity but their right,” Sarnaik said.
He also appealed to employees not to launch protests or go on strike over their demands, saying an agitation could disrupt services and inconvenience passengers who rely on the state transport network. The government and the corporation, he said, would address employees’ concerns through dialogue.
Sarnaik added that the government would continue working with MSRTC to improve passenger services and strengthen the corporation’s financial position.
MSRTC operates nearly 15,000 buses and ferries around 55 lakh passengers daily, making it the country’s largest state-run public transport undertaking.
