Haryana Roadways employees’ unions have announced to hold 24 hours hunger strike and Satyagraha protest on September 20 and 21 against the State Government’s decision to allow private buses to ply within and from the state.

The decision was taken during the state level employees Sammelan held at Rohtak on Friday. Sarbat Punia, leader of Haryana Roadways Workers Union said that the roadways employees will hold 24 hours hunger strike at all depots in Haryana. The employees criticized police’s action against the protesting employees. We have demanded withdrawal of cases against employees and their suspension by the government, Punia said.

He said that we condemn police’s lathicharge on employees who were to hold protest at Vidhan Sabha recently against government’s decision of hire more than 700 private buses for the state and enforcement of ESMA. We also demand withdrawal of ESMA, he added.

The Haryana Government had on August 30 imposed the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) to prevent the one-day strike from taking place on September 5. Following ESMA, the strike call given by Haryana roadways unions had fizzled out of their union leaders were detained in pre-dawn action at several depots and authorities managed to ply state-run buses on several routes.

The State Government and roadways employees’ unions had been at loggerheads for a long time now over the issue of hiring of over 700 private buses by the State Transport Department.

As per the Transport Department, Haryana roadways have been able to cater to only 12.5 lakh of the about 33 lakh daily commuters.

Earlier on August 7, commuters were inconvenienced when Haryana roadways’ employees had taken part in a nationwide strike for the amendments to the Motor Vehicle Act. Around 4000 buses of Haryana roadways had remained off the roads on that day. During the recently concluded State Assembly session, the opposition parties had lashed out at Haryana Government over its alleged failure to resolve the issues of roadways employees and enforcement of ESMA in the state.