Bengaluru, Dec 13: Traveling public in Karnataka continued to face hardship as members of the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) employees Federation refused to resume to work demanding considering their services on par with the State government employees.
However, the KSRTC authorities claimed that more than 100 buses are on the road and private buses may be run to solve the issue temporarily.
According to latest reports, the Minister held talks with agitating members and met the Chief Minister for discussion.
The ball is in the court of Chief Minister to resolve the issue.
Government is continuing its effort to resolve the issue by holding talks and trying to pacify the agitating workers.
In Mysore workers resorted to hunger strike in front of the Deputy Commissioner's office on Sunday.
Kodihalli Chandrashekhar group also began a hunger strike at Freedom Park in Bengaluru. Only those who have KSRTC ID cards were allowed to enter the Park. In District headquarters also the employees resorted to hunger strike.
Thousands of commuters were put into hardship as both suburban and city bus service remained suspended. The employees refused to resume duty till their demands were duly met by the State Government.
Deputy Chief Minister Laxman Savadi, who is also Minister for Transport holding the discussion with the many union leaders at Vidhana Soudha, the State Secretariat, but the government has not invited Kodihalli Chandrashekar group for the meeting.
Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa has asked the Minister to resolve the issue at the earliest as public are suffering.
The State Government sources clarified that Private buses may be run to resolve the issue temporarily.
In Belagavi, KSRTC workers family members along with their children sat on dharna to show solidarty with striking members and demanded to consider ksrtc employees on par with government employees.
Efforts will be made to resolve issues, failing which we will initiate talks with private bus players,” the source said, while maintaining that farmer leader Kodihalli Chandrashekhar could not be entertained as the representative of the RTC.
He is not part of any union or association of RTC workers,” the source explained. The protesting workers, however, refused to come to the negotiating table if not represented by Chandrashekhar and warned that deploying private buses may lead to violence.
Late Saturday evening, they submitted a memorandum to the minister, intimating that the farmers’ leader has been selected as the Hon., President of RTC workers.
The Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) operated 126 of the 5,000 buses while the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) operated 210 of the 5,500 buses. The North East Karnataka Transport Corporation operated 54 of its 3,678 buses.
According to a Kalburagi reports in Kalyana-Karnataka region the agitating workers intensified their agitation by resorting to indefinite hunger strike. Taking advantage of the situation, the taxi and auto drivers are charging more than normal fare.
Kalaburagi Depot-1 Traffic Controller Santoshkumar said that due to the shortage of employees most of the routes were cancelled.
According to a Belagavi report the the Corporation has incurred a loss of Rs 2 Crore per day i the Division--Belagavi and Chikkodi.
NWKRTC District Controller Mahadev R Munji said the division has more than Three thousand employees in Belagavi and 2500 in Chikkodi Each division.
Some Kannada organizations activists and farmers’ organizations supporting the Transport employees protested and they also participated in the protest. Protestors prepared the food, morning breakfast at the spot and provided it to the protestors.
Auto drivers, exploiting the situation, by charging more from the traveling public.
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