Punjab Roadways, PRTC, PUNBUS staff call off strike

Jalandhar, May 18: Contract employees of state transport undertakings Punjab Roadways, PRTC and PUNBUS on Thursday called off their indefinite strike. The announcement came after the Transport Secretary scheduled a meeting with protesting employees on Friday. Notably, contractual Punjab Roadways, PRTC and PUNBUS employees started an indefinite strike at the Shaheed Sukhdev Thapar Inter-State Bus Terminal on Wednesday afternoon, bringing around 100 buses to a halt. Also Read | Common university entrance test for PG admissions from 2022, says UGC chairman They were protesting against the failure of the transport department to release salaries of contractual employees for April and to demand regular jobs. Earlier, the staff protesting under the banner of Punjab Roadways/PRTC Contractual Employees Union stated that if the government fails to fulfil their demands, they will bring operations to a complete standstill from Thursday onwards. State general secretary of the union, Shamsher Singh, has said that the financial condition of the department is deteriorating due to the policies of the state, because of which around 4,000 contractual employees have not received their salaries for April. Singh said, “Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) made tall promises to regularise contractual employees and fulfil other demands of the union, but nothing has been done at the ground level. The union members had also conducted a meeting with transport minister Laljit Singh Bhullar on May 11, but to no avail.” “We had given the state government an ultimatum to fulfil our demands by Wednesday afternoon and the strike was commenced after nothing was done. The buses which had left before noon were asked to stop at the nearest depot after the strike started,” said Singh. Though private and PRTC buses were operational, passengers faced harassment due to the strike and were forced to wait for long period of time due to the disturbance in schedule. Further, many women passengers were forced to board private buses. Women can travel for free in government buses, as per a notification issued by the state government in the past. Also Read | Indonesia to lift ban on palm oil exports from May 23 -PTC News