Hoshiarpur: Roadways staff hold protest, people suffer

Hoshiarpur, June 21

On the call given by the Punjab Roadways/Punbus/PRTC Contract Employees’ Union, Punjab, employees of the district staged a protest at the Hoshiarpur bus stand on Tuesday. They also raised slogans ‘No salary no work’ in protest against the non-payment of wages to employees of the department. Passengers were an inconvenience lot who had to face problems.

Addressing the dharna on the occasion, Raminder Singh, district president of the union, said the AAP government was not fulfilling the demands of contractual employees just like earlier governments led by the Congress and the SAD-BJP combine. As a result, employees in the state are feeling ignored during the tenure of the current government.

He said earlier the contractual employees had to struggle for fulfilment of their demands, but now the department was also delaying the payment of salaries to the employees, as a result of which the employees were facing financial hardships.

Raminder Singh said these employees are working day and night, but the government’s decision to provide free travel facility to women had financially drained the roadways. He said crores of rupees had not been released to the department for the last five months. He said the union had contacted top officials of the department and the Transport Minister on several occasions, but salaries have not been released yet.

He warned that if the salaries of employees were not released immediately, Punjab Roadways/Punbus/ PRTC bus services in Punjab would be stopped from plying from 12 noon onwards on June 23.