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UP Roadways staff call off strike

Photo: Subir Roy

Protest: Samajwadi Party workers being prevented from reaching Raj Bhawan during a demonstration in Lucknow on Wednesday against Tuesday’s police firing and lathi-charge on transport workers.

LUCKNOW: Following another assurance by the Bahujan Samaj Party Government in Uttar Pradesh that the transport sector would not be privatised, the Joint Action Forum of UP State Road Transport Corporation (UPSRTC) employees withdrew the strike call they had issued on Tuesday. The agreement was clinched in the early hours of Wednesday.

The 24-hour strike call had been issued in the wake of the police lathi-charge on Tuesday that left 13 agitating UP Roadways employees injured. They were protesting against the move to privatise the giant transport undertaking. Since the agreement was clinched well past midnight on Tuesday, the Roadways and city buses had not resumed their services on Wednesday.

The State Transport Department also decided to bear the medical expenses of the Roadways employees hurt in the lathi-charge. Most of the injured sustained head injuries and were admitted to Balrampur Hospital here. State Transport Minister Ram Achal Rajbhar and senior transport officials visited he injured employees in the hospital on Tuesday night.

However, following the late night agreement, the State Government removed UPSRTC Chairman Neera Yadav from her post. She has been replaced by Desh Deepak Verma. Belonging to the 1971 batch of the IAS, Ms. Yadav is the senior-most bureaucrat of the UP cadre and in that capacity is the Chairman of the UP IAS Association.

Discontent among the transport employees had been brewing since December last year when the State Government reportedly decided to throw open some of the nationalised routes to the private sector. The employees perceived it as the first move to eventually privatise the transport sector. Ms. Yadav had reportedly walked out of the UPSRTC board meeting last December which had been called to discuss the privatisation proposal.

Matters came to a head when the Roadways staff, who were marching in a procession to the Vidhan Sabha, met with stiff resistance from the police. A Home Department spokesman said about five policemen were hurt in the clash with the transport employees.

The UPSRTC operates around 6,700 buses on State and nationalised routes. With 700 private buses running on contract with the Corporation, the transport undertaking has around 7,400 buses in its fleet.

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