Amritsar: Commuters face hardships as metro buses go off road

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, September 15

The Metro buses being run on the local routes in the city remained off roads on Thursday as the employees initiated a protest over the issue of delay in salaries, non-payment of arrears and other issues.

Employees protest delay in salary

• Employees initiated a protest over the issue of delay in salaries, non-payment of arrears and other issues
• The protest by the employees caused inconvenience to daily passengers as they were unable to reach their destinations on time
• Metro buses are used by thousands of passengers daily

The protest by the employees caused inconvenience to daily passengers as they were unable to reach their destinations on time. A private firm employee, Surveen Kaur, said: “I didn’t know about the protest and had to make alternate arrangements to go to work.”

Metro buses are used by thousands of passengers daily as these are a convenient and economical mode of transportation. The ridership on these buses has especially increased after the auto-rickshaw union increased the fares.

Locals said the protests by employees were held almost every month and due to these, passengers had to face trouble.

“The administration must look into the matter and ensure that the public transport system, which is still getting popular, is not allowed to be impacted due to minor issues between the employees and the private company operating the bus service,” said another resident Sukhwinder Kumar.

Meanwhile, the employees said safai sevaks and ticket checkers had gone on a strike due to delay in payment of salaries and non-payment of arrears for the last two years. “The employees are yet to get the benefits announced by the previous government and the management is not bothered as the government has changed,” said an employee. The employees stated that salary issues crop up every second month and they were forced to strike work to get their dues.

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