Transport workers hit by ₹2,500 cr PF crisis

CH NEWS, BENGALURU A grave financial controversy has gripped Karnataka’s public transit network, as serious allegations emerge regarding the alleged misappropriation of approximately ₹2,500 crore in Provident Fund savings belonging to over one lakh employees across the state's four major road transport corporations, including the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation and the Karnataka State Road Transportation Corporation. According to labor representatives and internal financial audits, compulsory employee contributions deducted monthly from the salaries of drivers, conductors, and technical staff—alongside mandatory matching contributions from the corporations—were reportedly withheld instead of being safely credited to the designated PF trusts. Under statutory labor regulations, employee deductions held in trust represent protected social security assets that are strictly prohibited from being co-mingled with internal corporate accounts or utilized for routine administrative overheads. However, mounting operational liabilities, severe cash crunches, and delayed government scheme reimbursements have allegedly forced transport authorities to divert these capital reserves toward day-to-day expenditures, including diesel purchases and monthly salary distributions. The scale of the deficit is staggering. The Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation alone is grappling with massive arrears totaling nearly ₹1,000 crore, failing to remit its mandatory monthly contributions of roughly ₹28 crore consistently. Simultaneously, cumulative unpaid dues across KSRTC, North Western, and Kalyana Karnataka road transport corporations have scaled past ₹1,500 crore, throwing the long-term financial security of nearly 1.10 lakh transport workers into deep peril. The human cost of this administrative shortfall has been immediate and severe. Hundreds of employees who submitted emergency applications over the past two months to withdraw portions of their accumulated savings—crucial for funding children’s higher education, weddings, medical treatments, and family health crises—find their claims stalled indefinitely. Outraged transport employee unions have condemned the diversion of retirement savings as a gross betrayal of trust, warning of state-wide agitations unless the government intervenes immediately to regularize all pending accounts and restore full institutional accountability.