PRTC staff on strike: Bus passengers face miserable time in Patiala

Tribune News Service

Patiala, December 12

The indefinite strike of contractual employees of the Pepsu Road Transport Corporation (PRTC) and the Punjab Roadways has put the passengers at the receiving end. Limited buses and lack of prior information about bus time table have left commuters stranded for hours at various bus terminals in the state.

The strike affected the long-distance commuters the most. With no other option, many long-distance travellers continued to stay at the bus stands itself hoping for the strike to be called off.

Short-distance travellers had a miserable time at the Patiala bus stand when they had to scramble to get a seat in the bus. Women and children face difficult time boarding a bus.

A female passenger said, “I have to go to Bathinda, but I am not able to get into the bus. There is a huge rush and people are pushing each other to force their way into the buses. There is no one to tell when the next bus will be available for Bathinda.”

Chaotic scenes were common at the Patiala bus stand today.

Meanwhile, PRTC officials claimed that they had started extra buses to reduce the impact of the strike. PRTC officials said there was a written examination for some government jobs and they had to ply some extra buses.

It has been learnt that buses were being run without the conductor. At this, a senior PRTC official said, “To ensure job aspirants reach the examination centre on time, we ran extra buses to Chandigarh from various depots in the state today. We roped in some drivers, who were deployed elsewhere in the department, for the service. However, we faced a shortage of conductors. Therefore, we had to run the buses without conductors. Tickets were issued to passengers at the terminals only.”

Maninder Sidhu, General Manager, PRTC, could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.

It has been learnt that around 289 buses of the total 1,097 were operational on today.

The protesting employees today announced that they would block the state and national highways if the government failed to find a solution in the meeting scheduled with the Chief Minister for December 14.

Women, children hit the most

Short distance travellers had a miserable time at the Patiala bus stand when they had to scramble to get a seat in the bus. Women and children face difficult time boarding a bus.

Protesters threaten to block roads

Protesting employees announced that they would block the state and national highways if the government failed to find a solution in the meeting scheduled with the Chief Minister for December 14.