Karnataka’s road transport employees called off their 4-day strike on Sunday after the state government responded to some of their demands, allowing the resumption of bus services throughout the southern state.
“As we accepted some of their demands in a meeting with their union leaders, the road transport employees agreed to withdraw the strike and resume bus services as of tonight,” Deputy State Chief Minister Laxman Savadi told reporters. .
“Although the state government agreed to offer health insurance under the Arogya Sanjeevini scheme, salary review and transfers between corporations, the demand for public employee status has been rejected,” said Savadi, who owns the transportation portfolio.
The Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) has approximately 37,019 employees and operates a fleet of 17,138 buses through three subsidiaries, including the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), North Road Transport Corporation East Karnataka (NEKRTC) and the North West Road Transportation Corporation (NWRTC)).
Of the total fleet, BMTC has 6,500 buses, KSRTC 5,500 and the rest are with the other two corporations (NEKRTC and NWRTC).
The trucking giant operates intrastate services in cities, towns and villages across the southern state and interstate services to the five neighboring states: Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Telangana.
With regular train services suspended since mid-March due to the Covid-induced shutdown and restrictions to contain the pandemic, thousands of people have been using buses to commute daily wearing a mask, maintaining physical distance, and washing their hands with disinfectant.
The sudden strike since Friday disrupted public transportation, forcing thousands of commuters to use private buses or other modes of transportation in cities and towns across the state.
With the four corporations suffering huge losses due to the shutdown and the guideline to haul 50 percent of the bus capacity to ensure social distancing, employee wages were delayed for the months through November.
While the President of Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha, Kodihalli Chandrashekar, led the strike of a part of the employees, the state government refused to speak to him as he is a farmer and has nothing to do with road transport.
Chief Minister of State BS Yediyurappa accused Chandrashekar of instigating transport employees to strike after leading thousands of farmers to participate in the nationwide lockdown against the three farm laws recently enacted by the Center.
Savadi also threatened to deploy private buses across the state starting Monday if the strike was not withdrawn on Sunday.
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