Some workers being held from joining work by their colleagues; incident of bus stoning by miscreants to scare staff and passengers
MSRTC workers will continue their stir at Azad Maidan, but they have been asked to vacate the ground after 5 PM due to section 144 imposed in the city. Pic/Suresh Karkera
Though the MSRTC strike seems to be weakening, over 50 per cent of its bus depots have begun functioning partially, as just 20,000 of the 96,000 employees are back at work. Efforts by individual workers to join work are being thwarted by their colleagues who are adamant on the strike. On Monday evening, 170 of the 250 depots had opened with 80 still on strike and over 11,000 employees suspended and nearly 1,000 dismissed as of now.
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A bus that started on Monday night from the Dapodi depot in Ratnagiri reached its destination at Palgad, but mid-way was accosted by unidentified bikers and stoned, striking fear amid the staff and passengers. The bus’s main windshield was shattered in the incident and the bus driver was also injured in his left leg. Such incidents had led to a shift of passengers from MSRTC to private buses, whose numbers too are deteriorating due to rising Covid-19 regulations and restrictions from several other states.
The Maharashtra government has tried everything from salary raise to withdrawing suspensions and from assuring a timely pay every month to pardoning those who participated in the strike, but the employees have refused to budge.
The curfew and new restrictions have also hit the striking employees hard as they are now being vacated from Azad Maidan due to the regulations and Section 144 against assembly in place at nights. MSRTC employees went on an indefinite strike from October 28 over their demand for merger of the cash-strapped corporation with the state government, which intensified after the Diwali festival.
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