The passengers had a harrowing time as the one-day strike call given by the roadways employees threw the transport services out of gear in the State on Thursday.
The employees unions are up in arms against the Centre’s proposed Road Transport and Safety Bill, 2014. In a bid to show their united strength, these unions undertook a countrywide strike on Thursday.
The Uttarakhand Roadways ceased its operation since Wednesday midnight, the brunt of which was borne by general public. The private transporters supported the strike call that added to their woes.
People were seen waiting for hours together at the Inter-State Bus Terminal (ISBT) here for buses to ply. More than 600 buses operate daily from the ISBT Dehradun serving thousands of people.
Sanjeev Kumar, a resident of Delhi, told this correspondent that he was waiting for a bus to Delhi since morning. He opined that the agitating employee unions should adopt some other means of protest than strike as it causes problems to common people.
Manish Mehra of Yamunanagar in Haryana said that he was in the city to attend a marriage but now due to the strike he and his family were stranded for hours at ISBT. Manju Parihar, a resident of Dehradun, said that she had planned to go to Delhi on Thursday but she had to cancel her plan due to strike. She complained that no one is there in the office to respond to inquiries of the passengers.
When contacted the Deputy General Manager (DGM) Operations of Uttarakhand Transport Corporation, Dipak Jain accepted that commuters faced problems due to nationwide strike call but added that in Uttarakhand the operation of buses resumed after 3 pm.
Justifying the strike call, the general Secretary of Uttarakhand Roadways Karamchari Sanyukt Parishad, Ramchandra Raturi said the proposed Bill would take the place of Motor Vehicles Act of 1988.
He said the proposals of the proposed Bill are anti-people and protect the interests of private players in transport sector.
Raturi said the Bill would ensure that all the State Transport Corporations are slowly closed down due to which more than 7.5 lakh employees would face job insecurity.
The general secretary of Uttaranchal Roadways employee Union, Ashok Kumar Chaudhary, said the proposed Bill was drafted by the senior officials after they accompanied Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari on his Europe tour due to which the Bill lacks ground realities of India.
He said the proposed Bill plans to levy heavy financial penalties on petty driving violations due to which lowly paid drivers would have no choice but to leave the job.
The union leader said the Central Government should do away with the plan to obliterate section six of Motor Vehicles act in the Road Safety Bill. All the employee unions including Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) - the wing of ruling Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) - are against the proposed Bill.
The general secretary of Centre of Indian Trade Union (CITU), lekraj claimed the strike was historic. He said that auto, maxi cab, taxi and private buses also participated in the strike. lekraj claimed that the Central Government intends to hand over the transport corporations to private players and the Bill exposes the anti-labour stance of NDA Government.