Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru

Bengaluru, Dec 11: The employees of the state-run State Road Transport Corporations (SRTCs) held a protest against the state government’s refusal to consider them as regular government employees on par with the other government servants in the state. The strike led to the hampering of bus transport across the state.

Although corporations maintained that transportation services would not be hindered because of the strike, most of the employees belonging to the four SRTCs including BMTC, KSRTC, NEKRTC and NWKRTC have resorted to protests in their respective depots and bus stations.

As an outcome of the strike, several trips that were planned for Friday had to be cancelled besides affecting the regular operations. In Bengaluru, most of the buses at Kempegowda Bus Terminus and BMTC bus stations remained off the roads. In various depots of the BMTC across Bengaluru, employees have boycotted their work leaving the buses stationed inside the depots. The abrupt strike has impacted students, senior citizens and inter-district commuters who use this mode for work purposes.

Several colleges and universities in different parts of the state had planned for examination and tests. However, due to the non-operation of the buses, many students missed out on the examination.

The strike was also observed in Haveri, Belagavi, Chitradurga, Hassan and other districts with all buses remaining off the roads. The employees had staged a protest in Bengaluru on Thursday and tried to sneak into Vidhana Soudha to make the government listen to their demands. The protesters warned to further intensify the strike with the return of buses that were stuck in various destinations after the night services.

Deputy chief minister and transport minister Laxman Savadi has also appealed to the Employees Federation to withdraw their strike while maintaining that under the prevailing pandemic situation it is impossible to consider their demands. He asserted that the demands of the SRTC employees will become an additional burden on the state exchequer.

Chandrashekhar president of the Employees Federation said, “The police have released the protesting employees late in the night on Thursday. We will fight and protest until the government listens to our demands and no bus will be operated till our demands are met with.”