With the State Government taking no measures to sort out their longstanding issues despite their repeated appeals, the Odisha State Road Transportation Staff Association on Sunday threatened to resort to cease-work agitation on July 30 by closing the Odisha State Road Transport Authority (OSRTC) office in Bhubaneswar and across the State.
The association also warned that no OSRTC buses would run on that day. “Despite our repeated appeals to the Government, no effective measures have been taken as yet. We have been demanding fulfilment of a five-point charter of demands like stopping of outsourcing, regularisation of all contractual employees, implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations retrospectively from January 1, 2006,” said association general secretary Prasant Kumar Rout, adding that due to the lack of the authorities’ foresight only 290 OSRTC buses are running now out a total of 395.
“While a driver and a conductor in other States are getting Rs 30,000 and Rs 25,000 per month, respectively, as per the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations, in Odisha a regular conductor and a driver are drawing only Rs 8,000 and Rs 6,000, respectively. During our earlier agitations, the corporation authorities had assured us to take positive steps to sort out our issues but in vain.” said Rout.
“We protested the inhuman attitude of the State Government by wearing black badges from July 17 to 21 to press our demands but nothing has happened yet,” added association president Nalini Ranjan Pati.