Govt calls HR workers to fresh round of talks

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 20

Buckling under pressure mounted by the Haryana Roadways Workers Union, the Manohar Lal Khattar government on Saturday invited its representatives to a fresh round of talks even as the near-total strike by the union completed its five days.

In a statement issued here today, the CM urged the representatives of the union to be present for the talks with officials of the Transport Department and assured them that their legitimate demands would be considered.

The Roadways’ employees are on strike against the government move to introduce 720 private buses on a kilometre payment basis. Their only demand is that this proposal be shelved.

Khattar appealed to the representatives and office-bearers of the Haryana Roadways Employees Unions to join their duty immediately, keeping in view the festival season and also the problems being faced by the general public. The government is always ready to hold discussions with them. All unions’ office-bearers have been appealed to come to the office of the Director-General, State Transport, Haryana, located on the second floor, 30-Bays Building, Sector 17-B, Chandigarh at 12 noon on October 21, 2018 (Sunday) for discussions with the Director-General and officials of the department. Their genuine demands would be considered sympathetically and action would be taken to fulfil them.

In his appeal, Khattar said the continuous five days’ strike by the Haryana Roadways employees since October 16 had caused inconvenience to the general public in their daily routine work. It is our constitutional and moral responsibility that any of our acts should not create problem to the general public. In the festival season, on not getting cheap, convenient and reliable travel facility by the Haryana State Transport, public resentment is understandable.

Representatives of the Haryana Roadways Employees Union have misconception that the hiring of 700 buses of private bus owners would lead to the privatisation of the department and the employees would be sorted out. This is not true as the buses hired from private bus owners will have conductors from the department only.

Private operators extend support to striking HR staff

Hisar: Private bus operators have extended their support to the ongoing strike by employees of the Haryana Roadways (HR). They have also threatened to join the strike from October 23 if the state government fails to address the issues raised by the HR union. After a meeting of the executive body here on Saturday, the Haryana Cooperative Transport Societies' Welfare Association said that they vehemently oppose the km scheme being floated by the state government and thus support the HR employees' strike. "The public-private partnership model based on km scheme is not in public interests. The scheme favours capitalists and big corporate houses as a huge investment is involved in getting permits which put the scheme out of the capacity of the common man," said association president Dalbir Mor. TNS