Contractual employees of the PRTC, Punjab roadways and PUNBUS on Wednesday announced to shut down bus stands across the state from Thursday onwards after one of their colleagues was terminated by the Pepsu Road Transport Corporation (PRTC) over alleged financial fraud.The PRTC management terminated the services of contractual conductor Gurvinder Singh, deployed on the Patran-Chandigarh route, following a departmental inquiry into alleged irregularities in the deposit of bus stand fees — charged for parking and operating buses at designated terminals.
Event Context
During the investigation, officials examined the receipts and other records before concluding that receipts for fees amounting to ₹3,422 were fake.
PRTC officials told HT that Gurwinder was subsequently issued a show-cause notice and granted an opportunity to present his explanation during a personal hearing. However, officials said his reply failed to satisfactorily explain the discrepancies.
Based on the inquiry findings and his response, the corporation decided to terminate his contractual services.
In his written reply to the management, Gurwinder denied all allegations of fraud and claimed he had been falsely implicated because of his active role in the contractual employees’ union. In a representation submitted to PRTC, he said he had been serving as a conductor since 2015 with an unblemished record and alleged that the management had adopted a vindictive approach because he frequently raised issues concerning contractual employees.
He maintained that the fee slips submitted by him were genuine and had been issued by staff of the municipal committees at Banur, Rajpura and Samana. He added that conductors merely received the slips at bus stands and had no practical way to verify which receipt book they belonged to.
Alleging that the conductor had been unfairly targeted, Harkesh Kumar, general secretary of the PUNBUS and PRTC Workers’ Union, demanded that the dismissal order be revoked. He said the union will keep all nine PRTC depots across Punjab shut from Wednesday until Gurvinder was reinstated.
Team Analysis
The union also demanded that the PRTC management order a fresh departmental inquiry into the allegations, claiming that the previous probe was unfair and one-sided.
“We will not resume normal operations until the conductor is taken back into service,” Kumar said.
PRTC officials, meanwhile, defended the disciplinary action, maintaining that the decision was taken after following due process. They said the corporation had a zero-tolerance policy toward financial irregularities and terminated the employee only after an inquiry established the alleged misconduct and found his explanation unsatisfactory.
source
According to the inquiry report accessed by Hindustan Times, Gurvinder embezzled ₹3,422 during May by manipulating the deposit of bus stand fees, which conductors must deposit daily along with municipal receipts.
The alleged fraud came to light after a cashier noticed discrepancies while scrutinising the receipts submitted by conductors.
Officials said suspicion arose when the serial number on the fee receipt submitted by Gurvinder did not match the sequence of receipts submitted by other conductors operating on the same route. Following the discrepancy, the corporation ordered a departmental inquiry.
