MTC staffer suspended for pilfering diesel

A Metropolitan Transport Corporation employee attached to the T Nagar bus deport was suspended from the service due to his alleged involvement in diesel pilferage last week. According to official sources, around 6,000 litres of diesel was pilfered from the facility on the day he was caught.

The departmental action was taken against J Suresh, a technical staff, after officials found discrepancies in the maintained logsheet dated October 24.

Sources said, “Diesel pilferage is a continuing practice across all the depots in the city. The technical teams of the respective MTC depots siphon off at least five litres of fuel from each bus, taking the daily pilferage to a whopping 16,000 litres of diesel.”

Members of transport unions claim that the issue was brought to the notice of top officials at various instances. Drivers alleged that the technical team would load fuel to cover a distance of 90 km while the entry in the logbook would claim having filled fuel to cover 100 km. This variation was detected when an MTC driver took a stock of the loaded fuel early in this year. “The driver found a mismatch of five litres when he measured the fuel in the vehicle. While the logbook recorded 140 litres, the actual quantity was 135 litres. The union has given several representations to the higher-ups in the last few months. But they are yet to pursue the issue,” said Thalapathy, State President of Netaji Transport Workers Union.

A fuel card system was introduced to address this issue about a decade ago. But it failed to generate desired results. The union leaders point out that technical teams take advantage and pilfer diesel from the storage facility.

An official attached to MTC, said, “We will conduct an inquiry into this matter. Only then, we will be able to get a clear picture.” The State-run transport corporation has 3,716 buses, of which 3,200 buses are on the road every day.