After the Haryana Roadways employees unions threatened to intensify their protest over a recent order of the State Government, Transport Minister Krishan Lal Panwar on Tuesday said that the matter of termination of services of 350 drivers has been put on hold.
He said that the Chief Minister Manohar Lal has been requested to reconsider the decision in this regard and till that time, their services will continue. 350 drivers were engaged on contract basis in 2016 and we would sympathetically consider their case, Panwar said while talking to the mediapersons here.
The announcement came few hours after the protest held by roadways employees at all bus depots in the state on Tuesday morning against the decisions of State Government to terminate the services of over 350 bus drivers.
Panwar, while talking to the mediapersons said that these drivers were engaged for one year with a condition that their services will not be required with recruitment of regular drivers.
He said that extension was given to these drivers in the years 2017 and 2018, which continued till 2019. Now, the department has adequate staff according to fleet, still as of now, they will continue with their services, he said.
Earlier in the morning, Haryana Roadways employees union had held protest demonstrations for two hours at all bus depots and announced to organize a state level employees sammelan on June 22 at Kurukshetra to decide next course of action.
Minister reviews progress of CM’s announcements
Krishan Lal Panwar presided over a meeting of the State Transport Board on Tuesday where works related to CM’s announcements were reviewed. There were about 71 announcements pertaining to Transport Department of which 33 have been disposed of, 17 are under progress and 20 are pending.
The Minister said that the pending CM’s announcements are mostly pertaining to allotment of land for constructing bus stands.