Haryana Roadways employees on Wednesday announced to extend their two-days strike till October 19 despite Chief Minister Manohar Lal’s order to suspend employees and the officers who are participating in the strike.
Public transport across Haryana remained affected and lakhs of commuters faced a harrowing time on Wednesday as well as the roadways employees’ strike continued for the second day against the State Government’s decision to hire 700 private buses in the state.
While the commuters were waiting for the two-day strike to end by the evening, the state roadways unions announced to extend their strike till October 19.
Despite the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) being in force, the roadways employees under the banner of Haryana Roadways Employees Union (HRWU) and other roadways unions staged demonstrations at various depots in the state.
Chief Minister Manohar Lal held a review meeting with Transport Department and directed to suspend employees and the officers who are participating in this strike.
Reacting on the government’s order, Haryana Roadways Workers Union general secretary Sarbat Singh Punia said, “We demand that the order is withdrawn. The government has taken an anti-employee decision by issuing notice to more than 1500 people on probation period.”
At a meeting held in Kaithal, we have decided to extend the roadways strike for two more days i.e. till October 19. We will announce the next course of action on October 19, he said.
Over 4,000 buses remained off roads in the state on Wednesday, he claimed.
Punia also said that the government should withdraw its decision to hire 700 private buses to ply within and outside the state.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court had on Monday directed the Haryana Government to ensure strict implementation of the ESMA during the two-day strike called by the state's Roadways Employees Union.
There are about 19,000 employees in Haryana Roadways, which has a fleet of more than 4000 buses in which nearly 12 lakh passengers travel daily.
Additional Chief Secretary, Transport Department, Dhanpat Singh while talking to the mediapersons said a decision has been taken in the review meeting to suspend the drivers without any show cause notice who are on probation period and participated in this strike. Similarly, 252 drivers who are on contract under outsourcing policy –II and joined the strike, they would also be removed from services from Wednesday onwards, he said.
In reply to a question, he said that in the last strike held on September 5, actions were taken against 180 persons, under which ESMA was imposed on Union leader, Dalbir Kirmara and others.
On October 16, 1507 buses were plied and some buses were plied even without conductors. At some places, the buses were run with the assistance of the police and special police officers (SPOs). Even today, about 40 buses plied in Hisar with the help of heavy vehicle drivers of other departments, he claimed.
Issuing a warning to protesting employees, Dhanpat Singh said that if the strike is not called off then recruitment would be carried out through outsourcing policy and buses would be plied for the facility of people.
The drivers and staff on probation period who participated in strike on September 5 as well as ongoing two days strike, action will be taken against them under ESMA and then such employees would be terminated, he said.
The Chief Minister has also ordered enquiry against the officers who indirectly participated in this strike, he said.
The government on Wednesday recommended to suspend the General Manager, Haryana Roadways, Palwal, Lajpat Rai. Similarly, Duty Inspector, Rewari, Karan Singh and works manager, Bahadurgarh, Bhagwan Dahiya have been suspended.
Dhanpat warned that be it an employee or a leader, whosoever would give provocative speech, actions would be taken against them.
Besides this, a decision has also been taken to suspend the newly appointed clerks, who are on probation period and participated in this strike, he said.
He said that though, the State Government has sent the requisition to Haryana Staff Selection Commission for the recruitment of conductors, but till then, 930 conductors and 500 drivers would be recruited under the outsourcing policy for the facility of the people. From ‘Saksham’ portal of the State Government, those having license of conductor could be recruited as conductors, he added.
When asked about losses to the roadways due to repeated strikes by unions, he said that we receive receipts of Rs 6 crore on an average every day. 24 hours strike causes a loss of around Rs 8-9 crore to the state roadways, he added.
On roadways employees unions demand to withdraw decision to hire 700 private buses, Dhanpat Singh said that plying of 700 buses on PPP mode would not harm the interests of any employee of roadways infact it would facilitate people.
He said that out of the total buses to be plied on kilometre basis, tendering process has been completed on 510 buses and the process for another 190 buses will begin soon.
Dhanpat Singh said that the population of Haryana is about 2.80 crore and about 30 lakh people travel in buses.
12 lakh people of the state travel daily in state roadways buses. To provide bus travel facility to 30 lakh people, the Haryana Roadways need to ply about 15,000 buses and at present, the State Roadways has only 4,100 buses, he added.