Hearing on a public interest litigation filed on behalf of the roadways employees union, the High Court has set the next date of hearing on February 18 and also directed the under secretary of the Transport Ministry to appear in the court on that date.
On Tuesday, the ministry filed an affidavit and informed the court that the transport corporations of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh had reached an agreement.
However, a copy of the said agreement could not be presented in the court. Expressing dissatisfaction at this, the court directed the ministry’s under secretary to appear in the court on February 18. The matter was taken up for hearing by the division bench of chief justice Ramesh Ranganathan and justice RC Khulbe.
According to the case details, the roadways employees union had filed a PIL in the high court stating that the State Government was planning to impose ESMA on them which was against the rules. The union had also contended that the government was forcing them to go on strike. The government and transport corporation are neither regularising the workers nor paying them salaries regularly even while they were yet to receive their overtime dues of the past four years.
The petitioner had also stated that they had reached an agreement with the state government on many occasions but still the government was prepared to impose ESMA on them.
While the state government owes Rs 86 crore to the corporation, the Uttar Pradesh transport corporation is to clear dues to the Uttarakhand transport corporation amounting to Rs 700 crore.
If the government and corporation get these dues cleared, the problems of the union members and the state’s transport corporation would get resolved, the union members have contended.