Passengers face inconvenience in festival season due to ST Mandal employees strike

Aurangabad, Nov 4:

Passengers from the city experienced a lot of inconvenience in Diwali festival season due to the strike of Cidco Bus Stand employees of Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC).

The MSRTC employees have given a strike call. In response to the call, employees at Cidco Bus Stand has staged ‘Chakka Jam’.

A total of 108 rounds were cancelled while buses were operated on 38 routes only today. Passengers who want to visit cities like Solapur, Osmanabad, Jalna, Beed suffered a lot in the ongoing festival season. Private four-wheeler drivers collected hefty fare from the passengers considering the situation.

Maharashtra Rajya Kanisht Vetan Shreni ST Employees union has given a call for a strike demanding to merge MSRTC into the State Government. The staff of Central Bus Stand and other tehsils did not participate much in it.

So, the bus service remained smooth.

However, the employees of CIDCO Bus Stand staged sit-in agitation in front of the depot in the morning. The union members claimed that 400 employees out of a total of 600 had not reported to duty due to strike. The agitators were sitting in front of the gate throughout the day. As a result, it suffered financial losses on Diwali.

ST Mandal divisional transport officer Amol Ahire, depot manager Laxman Lokhande held discussions with the employees and asked them to resume duty. The bus service was affected till Thursday evening. The passengers had to wait for the arrival of buses from other depots.

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The city bus service is run with the help of CIDCO bus depot staff. But due to the strike, 41 out of 45 buses were cancelled. Only 4 city buses ran. This caused a loss of about Rs 2.50 lakh to Rs 3 lakh. There are 72 buses in the convoy of CIDCO bus stand. As the strike had already been announced, about 18 buses had been parked at the bus stand instead of the depot a day earlier. Therefore, with the help of these 18 buses and non-striking staff, passengers were transported on some routes.