Roadways employees continue demonstration, keep buses off roads

Contractual workers of the PUNBUS continued to stage protest and kept buses off roads, while agitating against implementation of the kilometre (km) scheme on Saturday.

Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee (KMSC) extended support to the ongoing agitation of Punjab Roadways employees demanding that the state government should withdraw its privatisation-oriented policies and roll back the km scheme.

Led by state president Sukhwinder Singh Sabhra and state general secretary Rana Ranbir Singh Thatta, KMSC members participated in the stir in large numbers at various depots where Punjab Roadways staff had been staging sit-ins against the government’s decisions.

The leaders accused the state government of gradually handing over public institutions to private players, whether through power reforms or by creating space for private operators in the roadways.

Addressing the protestors, the union leaders said Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had, before taking office, publicly committed to regularising all contractual employees, but the government was now taking steps in the opposite direction.

They reminded that the state had earlier been forced to withdraw its land pooling policy after widespread public resistance, and warned that the same would happen with the km scheme.

Roadways employees’ union leaders demanded that the government withdraw the km scheme, regularise contractual staff, and accept their pending demands. They strongly condemned the termination of contractual employees’ union president Bikram Singh and demanded his immediate reinstatement.

The kisan union leaders asserted that the employees’ struggle would continue for as long as required, and the KMSC would stand firmly with them. They appealed to the public to support the agitation, saying that the roadways was a public institution and the fight concerns not only employees, but also ordinary citizens who rely on state-run transport services.