A day after failing to appease the roadways employees’ unions who had announced a one-day statewide strike on September 5, Haryana Government on Thursday invoked the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) for six months prohibiting the employees to go on proposed strike.

Haryana Roadways’ workers had announced ‘chakka jam’ on September 5, in protest against the State Government’s decision to allow private buses to ply within and from the state.

The strike was announced after representatives from various workers’ unions met Transport Minister Krishan lal Panwar on Wednesday over their demand of withdrawal of decision of hiring private buses. While the State Government made it clear that more than 700 private buses will be hired by State Transport Department, the roadways unions remained adamant over withdrawal of this decision.

A spokesman of Haryana Government on Thursday said that Haryana Government has prohibited strike by the employees of State Transport Department or Haryana Roadways   for a period of six months under Haryana Essential Services Maintenance Act, 1974, with immediate effect. 

Any strike by them would gravely affect the public safety and commuting of passengers, which is an essential service to the community and is likely to ultimately affect the supply of essential services to the public in the state. Thus, it was necessary to prohibit a strike and the decision has been taken in public interest, the spokesman said.

Meanwhile, the state employees’ unions have criticized the government for enforcing the ESMA and also asked it to withdraw the decision.

Earlier on August 7, commuters were inconvenienced when Haryana roadways’ employees had taken part in a nationwide strike against the amendments to the Motor Vehicle Act. Around 4000 buses of Haryana roadways had remained off the roads on that day and the passengers were forced to pay higher fares on private buses and taxis to reach their destinations.

As per the Transport Department, about 33 lakh people use the state transport facility daily, whereas the roadways has been providing services to only 12.5 lakh people.

Reacting to the demand of roadways unions, Transport Minister Krishan lal Panwar had earlier clarified that there is no privatization of state roadways and the government will hire 720 private buses to facilitate the general public. Out of 720 buses lOA (letter of authorization) was issued to 510 buses, he had said.

The Minister had also said that there is need to run about 15,000 buses every day, but the state government is unable to purchase such a large number of buses at one go hence we are hiring private buses.

A day before also, the State Government had invoked provisions under the Haryana ESMA to end the ongoing strike by multi-purpose health workers in the state.

However, defying ESMA, the health workers continued their strike on Thursday over their demands.