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Ludhiana: Commuters bear the brunt as roadways contractual staffers go on strike
Protesting against the Punjab government over its ‘failure’ in regularising them, the contractual staffers also closed the bus stand for around two hours
Commuters at Amar Shaheed Sukhdev Interstate Bus Terminal were a harried lot after Punjab Roadways (Punbus) contractual employees went on a three-day strike across the state starting Monday, slamming brakes on the movement of over 200 roadways and PRTC buses.
Protesting against the state government over its ‘failure’ in regularising them, the contractual staffers also closed the bus stand for around two hours and staged a demonstration against the government.
Meanwhile, commuters were seen looking for alternative mode of transport to reach their respective destinations.
Jasmeet Singh, one of the passengers, who was supposed to travel to Dhuri, said, “I have been waiting for a bus for the last around half an hour. Roadways buses are not running and private buses are not available at present. One of the private operators has assured that one bus will depart for Dhuri in 15 minutes and I have been left with no other option than to wait for it.”
Chaotic scenes were witnessed outside the bus stand as private bus operators continued their services from there for the time period when the bus stand was closed. Some of the commuters also complained that they charged extra fare from them.
Another commuter waiting for a bus to Patiala, Gurjit Singh, said, “The employees should protest for their rights, but they should ensure that public does not face any harassment. We are forced to travel in private buses and their operators charge extra ₹10- ₹20 when the public bus services are suspended.”
Meanwhile, authorities said that 25 buses were run by the department on Chandigarh, Amritsar, Barnala and a few other routes through the permanent staff of roadways, but the services at most of the routes remained suspended due to strike.
Station supervisor Kuljit Singh Sodhi said, “We have permanent staff to run only 25 buses, while rest of the buses were put to halt due to the strike announced by contractual employees. The government is in talks with the union to end the strike.”
Women passengers wait for free service
Many women passengers were seen waiting for the public bus service to resume to travel free of cost.
One of the residents of Sangrur, Manjit Kaur, said, “We had planned to pay obeisance at the Golden Temple and seven of us, including five women, took a roadways bus to Ludhiana from Sangrur in the morning. We had to change our bus from Ludhiana, but we are stuck here due to the strike. If we opt for a private bus now, we will have to pay the fare for all seven of us, which will cost us around ₹1,000 extra. We are waiting for roadways services to resume towards Amritsar, otherwise we will have to go back.”
‘Will protest outside CM’s residence today’
Slamming the state government for not paying heed to their demands, state vice-president of Roadways/Punbus Contractual Employees Union Satnam Singh and district vice-president Gurpreet Singh said the three day strike will continue till June 30.
They added that the union will stage a protest outside of the residence of Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh in Patiala on June 29.
The employees said that many of them have been working with the department for over a decade, but the government has failed to regularise their services despite making promises during the last assembly elections.
