With 1,20,000 employees of the Road Transport Corporation (RTC) continuing their indefinite strike in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh for the second consecutive day, the commuters including office goers had a harrowing time and the normal life was also hit badly.
less than10 per cent of the 20,000 buses were on the roads leaving massive number of people stranded or at the mercy of private operators.
More difficulties are in store especially for some 6,00,000 students in Andhra Pradesh who are going to appear in the EAMCET or common entrance test on Friday and other examinations thereafter.
The RTC employees in both the States, demanding a whopping 43 per cent revision of their wages have struck the work and held sit in protest and demonstrations in Hyderabad, Vijayawada and other major cities and towns of the two States.
Tension prevailed at some places as the agitated employees clashed with the police to stop the buses from coming out of the depot as the management tried to run partial services with the help of the contract employees.
Police had to use force in Hanmakonda town where a procession by the employees turned violent and they damaged the buses. Section 144 was imposed around all the RTC depots to keep the trouble makers at bay.
While the main bus stands in Hyderabad wore a totally deserted look under the watchful eyes of the police, local trains were over crowded.
Three wheelers and other forms of transports were also overloaded with passengers who had to pay 100 to 200 per cent more fare than usual. In some cases, the auto rickshaws were demanding Rs100 even for a 3 km journey.
Telangana minister for Transport Mahinder Reddy ruled out the possibility of increasing the wages by 43 per cent and said that RTC was not in a position to bear such a burden.
AP Minister for Education Ganta Srinivas Rao appealed to the striking employees to end the strike in view of the entrance examination and save the future of the students.
“They should realise that for the students from the rural areas buses were the main mode of transport to reach the examination centres” he said.
Sambasvia Rao, the managing director of APSRTC said that efforts were being made to restore at least 40 per cent of bus service by this evening or by Friday.
He urged the employees not to cause hardship to the people.
“People have full faith in RTC and they rely on it for commuting. We should not become cause of their suffering”, he said.
Authorities have advised the students appearing in EAMCET to stay in the vicinity of their respective centres from a day in advance so they could reach the destination on time.