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Punbus contractual workers start chakka jam for 3 days

JALANDHAR: Perturbed over the state Transport Department’s negligence in complying with demands of Punbus contractual workers, the Punbus Contractual Workers Union on Monday midnight kicked off their three-day chakka jam, from July 2 to 4, against the Transport Ministry.

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Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, July 2

Perturbed over the state Transport Department’s negligence in complying with demands of Punbus contractual workers, the Punbus Contractual Workers Union on Monday midnight kicked off their three-day chakka jam, from July 2 to 4, against the Transport Ministry.

Between 9 am-11 am, state-owned and private buses remained off road due to the protest. The workers also burnt effigies of the Transport Minister and corrupt officials of the department. The protesters did not allow buses to move for three hours during the strike.

As many as 250 Punbus buses also remained off road in the city.

The members of the union said the buses would be seized till the last day of the strike. With this ongoing strike, the Transport Department is going to face a loss of over Rs 15 lakh to Rs 20 lakh every day. Besides, passengers travelling out of the state have to bear the brunt of the strike as most of the buses plying out of station are of Punbus.

The troubled passengers were among those who had to take the cheap and luxury buses to Delhi, in the absence of which they have to opt for expensive private buses.

District president of the union Balwinder Singh said the strike was conducted in all 18 depots of the state and over 1,500 buses of Punbus will not move till the last day of the strike.

“The government has failed to keep its promise of regularising the contractual workers despite their repeated ultimatums. Transport Minister Razia Sultana also backed off from taking any action in the favour of the contractual workers, regardless of calling out a meeting with the union in the previous week,” he added.

Depot chairman Vikramjit Singh said the state Transport Department has paid no heed to the contractors and transport mafias operating under the government and corrupting the department. Pressing the demands of the union, he said to end the role of contractors, the outsourced recruitment of workers should be abolished. Jasbir Singh, general secretary of the union, said the workers should be directly hired on a contractual basis and they should not be threatened. At present, not only salaries of workers cut down but also unnecessary penalties were imposed on them to acquire money.

In their further action, all 4,500 members of the union also threatened to organise a protest march to the residence of the Transport Minister on July 3.

Passengers suffer as buses remain off road

Hoshiarpur: As many as 120 buses remained off road in Hoshiarpur today on the first day of the three-day strike by the Punbus Contract Workers’ Union. Members of the union burnt the effigy of Transport Minister and the state government.

Buses were parked outside the bus stand, causing a traffic jam in the area and nearby areas. Passengers faced inconvenience due to the strike. School and college students suffered  the most.

Leaders of the union said: “The government is not fulfilling its promise of regularising temprorary and contractual employees. They warned that if the striking workers were harrassed, then they will resort to an indefinite strike.”

The passengers also faced inconvenience at the Talwara bus stand. The contractual employees sat on a dharna from 9 am to 12 noon, due to which there was no movement of buses. Similar was the situation at Garhshankar and other areas of the district.

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