MSRTC flash strike leaves passengers stranded on Monday morning

PUNE For Sharad Nigade, a senior citizen, it was a difficult day as he couldn’t get an ST bus to travel to Kalyan for his pension-related work

PUNE For Sharad Nigade, a senior citizen, it was a difficult day as he couldn’t get an ST bus to travel to Kalyan for his pension-related work. So he had to return home and wait till the indefinite strike started by the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) ends.

For the last 10 days MSRTC workers and unions are protesting various demands. (REPRESENTATIVE PHOTO)

“As last week was Diwali I had planned to go to Kalyan for my pension work and so I came to Swargate ST stand in the morning to catch a bus. Here I came to know about the strike and there were no buses going towards Mumbai. I cannot pay such a high fare for a private bus, as I get a ticket concession on the MSRTC buses being a senior citizen,” said Nigade.

Like Nigade, thousands of passengers were disappointed on Monday as they were not able to travel to destinations. Some choose to go by private buses or private cabs.

For the last 10 days MSRTC workers and unions are protesting various demands. A Kruti Samiti of unions was formed to have a conversation with the state government. Apparently the main demand of merging the MSRTC into the state government was compromised according to workers, so now all workers (apart from union members) have spontaneously started a strike from Sunday midnight.

All 13 MSRTC depots in the Pune division were closed on Monday and no buses went on the roads.

It is estimated to be a single-day loss of around ₹60 lakh for the division. Around 120,000 passengers travel daily from the 13 depots.

“There are several unions who earlier started the protest for various demands, but when they had a meeting with the state transport minister and other state government officials our main demand of merging the organisation into the government was sidelined. So we are now not supporting any of the unions and have started the strike on our own,” said Sanjay Mundhe, a driver from the Swargate depot.

Given that it was Monday morning, a rush of passengers was seen at the Swargate and Shivajinagar ST stands. ST buses from other division depots were also coming in to drop passengers.

Another passenger Balasaheb Nikte, who had come along with his wife and three-year-old daughter said, “There is a wedding in our family at Virar and we need to go there urgently. As there are no buses going, we have to look for another option now. I booked the tickets online yesterday for around ₹1,000 and now to travel separately I need to spend double.”