MSRTC employees go on strike, CM Shinde offers to meet on Wednesday

Mumbai: Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Tuesday appealed to the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) employees to withdraw their strike, assuring a meeting with them on Wednesday to discuss their issues.

CM Shinde’s call came after the MSRTC employees went on an indefinite strike from Tuesday ahead of the 11-day Ganesh festival when a host of residents of Konkan in particular residing in Mumbai go to their native places. The strike led to the disruption of State Transport bus services across the state causing inconvenience to the commuters, including students, especially from the rural and mofussil areas.

"The government has called a meeting tomorrow. Already one meeting was held earlier to discuss various issues of the MSRTC employees. ST buses are a lifeline and they go from village to village. Ganeshotsav is near. Many citizens use ST buses to go to the market for buying and selling. So my appeal to MSRTC employees is that you should not go on strike. The government will resolve your issues," said CM Shinde.

The action committee of 11 trade unions of MSRTC employees has called for an indefinite strike. Since 8 a.m., of the total 251 depots, the bus services have been closed from over 50 such depots while few others are partially or fully operational.

The striking employees are demanding salaries at par with the state government employees. They have strongly opposed the privatisation but demanded more funds from the state government for sustainable operations. However, despite CM Shinde’s appeal, the MSRTC employees have decided to continue their strike.

According to trade union sources, most of the MSRTC depots are closed in the Latur and Nanded divisions of Marathwada while in western Maharashtra, the traffic in Kolhapur and Solapur divisions was running smoothly.

However, depots from Shivajinagar, Vallabhnagar, Bhor, Saswad, Baramati and Talegaon in Pune district were completely closed. Similarly, depots from the Sangli district, including Miraj, Jat and Palus were shut. Further, the depots.