PUNE The strike by the Maharashtra State Transport Corporation (MSRTC) workers is been going on for over four months now, thus causing inconvenience to regular commuters and financial losses to the transport body. Now, the state transport minister Anil Parab has given the workers an ultimatum to resume work by March 10, or face strict action. Of the 82,000 workers, at least, 28,000 have resumed work across the state, as of Friday.
Parab on Friday said, “The transport body is facing huge financial losses due to the strike. We have given them an ultimatum of March 10. Those workers who have been dismissed can appeal to rejoin and we will consider it positively and as per legal terms further process on resumption of work can be done. However, if a worker doesn’t resume work by March 10, then we will assume that he/she is not in need of a job and then strict action will be taken against them.”
Meanwhile, Parab submitted a detailed report on Friday in the state assembly, this report was already approved by the cabinet on February 23 and it is not in favour of merging the transport body into the state government, said officials.
Talking about the issue Sanjay Munde, one of the workers leader from Pune division said, “The protest will continue till our demands are fulfilled and none of us will resume work, irrespective of the ultimatum. We will wait for the decision of the High Court. We are also not willing to carry the protest for this long. Each one of us is suffering financially and need to resume work, but this will only happen after merger decision is taken.”
{{/usCountry}}Talking about the issue Sanjay Munde, one of the workers leader from Pune division said, “The protest will continue till our demands are fulfilled and none of us will resume work, irrespective of the ultimatum. We will wait for the decision of the High Court. We are also not willing to carry the protest for this long. Each one of us is suffering financially and need to resume work, but this will only happen after merger decision is taken.”
{{/usCountry}}From the last four months the MSRTC workers and their several unions are protesting for their various demands, a Kruti Samiti of the unions was formed earlier to have a conversation with the state government. But apparently, the main demand of merging the MSRTC into state government was compromised according to the workers, so now all the workers (apart from the union members) have spontaneously started the strike. While the Mumbai High Court has not yet given any decision over the issue, as a three-member committee had submitted a report to the state government, but had said it is not feasible to merge MSRTC into the state government.