Haryana Roadways employees went on a two-day strike on Tuesday to protest the State Government’s decision to hire more than 700 private buses in the State.
Despite the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) being in force, the roadways workers went on strike and staged sit-ins at several depots across the state, including in Rohtak, Sirsa, Hisar, Ambala and Chandigarh, under the banner of Haryana Roadways Karamchari Joint Action Committee.
The strike left thousands of passengers in a lurch at many places across the State. The Haryana Roadways buses also travel to other States, including Jammu & Kashmir, Delhi, Rajasthan, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Punjab.
Police personnel were deployed at several bus depots in Haryana to prevent any untoward incident and buses plied with police escort at some roadways depots including Bhiwani, Jhajjar and Gurgaon.
As a precautionary measure, authorities had imposed Section 144 CrPC, prohibiting gathering of more than four persons, across all Haryana Roadways' depots.
“We want the Haryana Government to withdraw its decision of introducing private buses in the state. The decision is against the interests of government employees,” Haryana Roadways Workers Union general secretary Sarbat Singh Punia alleged.
Punia said if the Government does not immediately withdraw its decision, then the future course of action will be decided at an emergency meeting by the striking employees on Wednesday.
Our strike was supported by many other employees’ union bodies as well, he added.
“Despite the Government’s move to crush our strike by imposing the ESMA, ordering suspension of many workers and rounding up 176 of our workers and leaders, over 4,000 buses remained off roads,” he claimed.
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.
In August also, the Haryana Roadways employees had gone on a day-long strike to protest the government’s decision to hire private buses in the State.