PRTC staff lay siege to bus stand

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, October 15

Unhappy over the termination of drivers’ contract, members of the PRTC AITUC Union staged a protest and blocked the main gates of the bus stand and the workshop here on Tuesday.

Due to the protest, passengers faced a tough time at the city bus stand in the afternoon. The protest was headed by Pritam Singh and Jaswinder Singh.

The protesters also raised slogans against the PRTC general manager, Bathinda. The protest continued for more than an hour, which hit the timings of many buses.

Later, the SP (City) reached the spot and tried to pacify the protesters. He assured them of a meeting with PRTC general manager Praveen Kumar.

While addressing the protesters, union leaders Suraj Singh and Mohkam Singh said the contract of drivers working for the past three years were terminated due to a fault in ETM ticket machines, which was totally injustice to them.

They said the PRTC MD had terminated the contract of around 80 PRTC drivers working in eight depots without any probe. They said these drivers had no role in the fault that hit of ETM machines. The union leaders said they condemned the PRTC general manager’s decision to termination 12 drivers at the Bathinda depot.

They demanded regularisation of employees’ services recruited through outsourcing. Besides, they demanded that buses running under the kilometer scheme should be plied on long routes. They also condemned the change in seating arrangement of specially abled employees working at the pass counter.

PRTC general manager Parveen Kumar said, “The head office has taken action against the drivers. They had sent a demand letter to the office given to them by the union.”

Due to the protest, vehicles on the GT Road outside the bus stand were stuck in a traffic jam. The police had diverted the traffic coming towards the bus stand via Power House Road.

Even the buses coming to the bus stand were also stopped a few metres away due to the traffic jam. Commuters had to walk down to get an auto or a rickshaw to reach their destination.