The Opposition parties, Congress and Indian National lok Dal have slammed the Haryana Government for invoking the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) for six months prohibiting the employees to go on strike in the State.
Kiran Choudhry, leader of the Haryana Congress legislature Party on Monday accused the BJP led Haryana Government of depriving the Government employees their rights.
“The government employees are suffering due to anti-employees policies of the BJP. The government has not only failed to address the grievances of roadways employees but also, depriving them of their rights to protest by invoking ESMA,” said the Congress leader while speaking at a party event in Charkhi Dadri.
Choudhry further said that the government employees, be it from Health Department, roadways or others, are today forced to go on strike. The BJP has failed to fulfill its pre-poll promises and instead, causing inconvenience to government employees as well as general public, she added.
The State Government had last week invoked the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) for six months prohibiting the roadways employees to go on their proposed strike on September 5. At the same time, the government had also invoked provisions under the Haryana ESMA to end the strike by multi-purpose health workers in the state.
lashing out at the Haryana Government, Ashok Arora, Indian National lok Dal state chief, said that the BJP has failed to resolve the long-pending demands of government employees.
“Instead of fulfilling their demands, the government has been neglecting its employees, who have no option but to go on strike. Invoking ESMA to stop employees from protesting is another anti-employee move of this BJP Government,” he said.
“The roadways employees are against the privatization of state transport. Instead of taking action against the protesting employees, the government should invite them to hold talks,” Arora added.
Notably, Haryana Roadways’ employees unions have announced ‘chakka jam’ (day-long strike) on September 5, in protest against the State Government’s decision to allow private buses to ply within and from the state.
The strike was announced after the meeting between representatives from various workers’ unions and Transport Minister Krishan lal Panwar last week failed to yield any positive results. While the State Government has made it clear that more than 700 private buses will be hired by State Transport Department, the roadways unions has remained adamant over withdrawal of this decision.
Anoop Singh Sehrawat, member of the Joint Action Committee of Haryana roadways employee unions, on Monday said that it has been decided to go ahead with the proposed day-long strike on September 5.
“The Joint Action Committee will protest against the anti-employee move of enforcing ESMA by government. Despite of ESMA in place, the roadways unions will hold one-day strike against the State Government’s decision of hiring more than 700 private buses in Haryana,” he said.
Haryana Transport Minister Krishan lal Panwar had earlier clarified that there is no privatization of state roadways and the government will hire 720 private buses to facilitate the general public. Out of 720 buses lOA (letter of authorization) was issued to 510 buses, he had said.
The Minister had also said that there is need to run about 15,000 buses every day, but the State Government is unable to purchase such a large number of buses at one go hence we are hiring private buses.
Earlier on August 7, commuters were inconvenienced when Haryana roadways’ employees had taken part in a nationwide strike against the amendments to the Motor Vehicle Act. Around 4000 buses of Haryana roadways had remained off the roads on that day and the passengers were forced to pay higher fares on private buses and taxis to reach their destinations.
As per the Transport Department, about 33 lakh people use the state transport facility daily, whereas the roadways has been providing services to only 12.5 lakh people.