3,000 roadways buses off Punjab roads, commuters hit

Chandigarh: Contractual employees of the Punjab Roadways and the Pepsu Road Transportation Corporation on Tuesday began a two-day strike to press for their demands, including regularisation of services and an increase in salaries. The strike left many passengers stranded at bus stands, including in Sangrur, Ludhiana, Moga, Muktsar, Amritsar, Ferozepur, Hoshiarpur and Patiala. Gurvinder Singh, secretary of the Punjab Roadways, Punbus, PRTC Contract Workers’ Union, said they are staging demonstrations at all 27 bus depots in the state.

The contractual employees are seeking from the state government, among others, regularisation of their jobs and a five per cent hike in their annual salaries. Singh claimed that the hike was promised by the state government but not implemented. Waving black flags, the protesting employees raised slogans against the government and threatened to intensify their protest if their demands were not met. In Ludhiana, Gurpreet Singh -- the union’s general secretary -- said around 7,000 employees were taking part in the strike. Only regular employees of the state-owned transport undertaking have joined work. Around 200 protesters also sat on a dharna in front of the main gate of the local bus stand and held a rally. According to the protesters, around 3,000 buses of the Punjab Roadways and the Pepsu Road Transportation Corporation (PRTC) have stayed off the roads.

The strike inconvenienced many passengers, several of whom were unaware of the strike call. A passenger at the Sangrur stand said he waited for a state-owned bus for 25 minutes but “not even a single bus came”.

Women, who generally prefer state-owned buses because of the free travel scheme, were forced to take private vehicles. A woman passenger in Ludhiana said she was waiting for a bus to Jalandhar but did not get one. In Hoshiarpur, 40-year-old Rajinder Kaur, who was waiting at the depot for a bus to Chandigarh with her husband and son, said they came on a private bus from Dasuya with the hope of boarding a state-owned vehicle.

However, despite waiting for almost two hours, no state-owned bus for Chandigarh arrived, she said. In Ferozepur, 70-year-old Bheem Parkash and his 63-year-old wife Raj Rani of Fazilka said they had planned to travel to Kota in Rajasthan to meet their children. “We were not aware of today’s strike.

Now we are stuck in Ferozepur. The scorching heat and humidity are also creating problems for us,” Parkash said. Jatinder Kaur (32), who travels daily from Zira to Ferozepur, said she waited for an hour but could not get a state-owned bus. In Ferozepur, union representative Jatinder Singh said they gave an ultimatum to the state government a month ago but the government did not bother.