Thursday, 24 October 2014 | PNS | DEHRADUN
The Uttarakhand Transport Corporation Employees Joint Federation called off their 48 hours strike after talks with the officers of the Transport department on Wednesday. They had started the strike at midnight on Tuesday but suspended it after discussions with senior officials. The federation was demanding regularisation of special category and contractual employees and opposed the decision of granting permits to private buses on the nationalised routes in the State. The representatives of the federation also met senior officials of the department around 8 PM on Tuesday but it did not conclude to positive results due to which, the employees started the strike from 12 am on Wednesday.
Another meeting was held on Wednesday morning led by the Transport secretary Brijesh Sant and other senior officials. During the meeting, Sant clarified the confusion surrounding the department’s order dated October 14 regarding the issuance of permits on nationalised routes. He assured them that the department has imposed a complete ban on issuing permits for nationalised routes until further orders. He also addressed the concerns raised by the employees due to misinterpretations of the order. Besides this, he also assured them that their other demands will be considered sympathetically, with all stakeholders taken into confidence before making any decisions.
Following this assurance, the convener of the federation Ashok Chaudhary announced to call off the strike. The union leaders also informed in the meeting that due to the planned strike, some drivers and conductors had either taken leave or not reported for duty on Wednesday, leading to around 20-25 per cent of services being disrupted in the morning. However, all services were almost fully restored by afternoon, as per them.
