MSRTC Pune division increases bus operations, protesting workers resume duties

PUNE The bus operations of the Pune division of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) are getting back on track after a large number of the protesting workers have resumed duties since the last few days

PUNE The bus operations of the Pune division of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) are getting back on track after a large number of the protesting workers have resumed duties since the last few days. Since the Bombay High Court (HC) direction to join till April 15, a total 3,200 workers have joined back out of the total 4,192 workers in the Pune MSRTC division.

Passengers at Swargate ST stand on Wednesday. (Rahul Raut/HT PHOTO)

While the MSRTC Pune division has now increased its bus operations across ST stands along various routes all over the state. Also, private tourist bus operations that were going on from inside the ST stands have stopped now and passengers can travel by MSRTC buses from the ST stands. It has given major relief to passengers from rural parts of the state as they were completely dependent on MSRTC buses for transportation.

“We have now increased our daily bus operations and as of today, the number has gone up to 1,330 daily bus operations with around 70,000 passengers travelling from the Pune division. While the revenue of the MSRTC Pune division is increasing gradually, since the past five months, it has gone down drastically. Now we have reached up to around ₹85 lakh,” said MSRTC Pune divisional controller Ashok Sot.

On April 6, a division bench of chief justice Dipankar Datta and justice M S Karnik instructed the protesting workers to resume duties till April 15 as already, five months have passed. From the past over five months, MSRTC workers and their unions have been protesting for various demands. A Kruti Samiti of the unions was formed earlier to strike a conversation with the state government. But apparently, the main demand of merging the MSRTC with the state government was compromised according to the workers, so all the workers (apart from the union members) spontaneously started the strike.

Even the protesting workers are now not willing to continue their strike as their leader, advocate Gunaratna Sadavarte, has been arrested and there is no one to lead the protest. Speaking on condition of anonymity, one of the workers who recently resumed work said, “We were protesting for the last five months but the main demand of merging the organisation was not accepted even as we had to suffer a lot. Our families are starving and we are suffering financially; there is no one to support us and so we decided to resume work now.”