The state road transport corporation is engaged in a technology-based modernization to ensure transparency in its functioning but a controversy over electronic ticketing machines and software has put a section of its employees under a cloud of suspicion.
Bangalore-based Micro-FX, which supplied over 3,500 ticketing machines to the KSRTC since 2003, has petitioned the chief minister, transport minister and corporation authorities that the software and spare parts of machines that had gone missing from its offices in Thiruvananthapuram and Aluva in 2006 were being used by the corporation. It has also registered a police complaint.
The firm has alleged that the software and spare parts were hacked and stolen by a former employee, who is now engaged in repairing the malfunctioned ETMs that use the stolen software.
“This former employee and his companion were arrested and sent to jail in 2006 for hacking our software and billing machines, ticketing machines and its imported components. The same person is now supplying spare parts, stolen from our office, and repairing ETMs with KSRTC. In effect, the KSRTC is using stolen spare parts and software. A section of KSRTC employees is earning a commission in the name of the purchase and service of ETMs,” Micro FX managing partner Sahib Jan said.
The firm claims that the stolen ETMs are being used in some depots. It has alleged that the collection from these machines is shared among a section of employees.
Nearly 60 ETMs had gone missing from various KSRTC depots from 2005 to 2009. It is suspected that these machines are also used on routes with the support of a section of officers in KSRTC headquarters. The corporation had not registered any police complaint in connection with the missing machines but it conducted an internal inquiry and took action against a few employees.
Corporation officials, however, rubbished the allegation and said they had bills to prove that the software and spare parts were purchased locally. “The firm has never approached us with the complaint. Also, we haven’t found any of the missing machines being used,” said the officer in charge of ticketing machines.
They levelled a counter-allegation that Micro-FX had, from early this year, backtracked from its annual maintenance contract of machines it supplied in 2008. “We had made advance payment for the maintenance. They did not provide the maintenance but instead locked the machines with a secret code. We are considering legal action against the firm, asenior officer from the EDP Centre said.
Source: Times Of India
