Day 2 of protest: PRTC, Punbus unions refuse to ferry more than 52 passengers

Tribune News Service

Mohit Khanna

Patiala, January 24

Commuters continued to have a rough ride across the state as Pepsu Road Transport Corporation (PRTC) and Punbus Employees Unions continued their strike on the second consecutive day and refused to ferry more than the prescribed limit of 52 passengers on a bus.

New law on ticketless passengers

The state government has introduced a new rule, under which if passengers are found travelling without a ticket on four occasions during surprise checking, the conductor, in case he is a contractual employee, will be sacked on a charge of committing a fraud. a union leader

The meeting between the union members and PRTC management also remained inconclusive. Sharing details, state president of the PRTC Contractual Employees Union Harkesh Vicky said the decision was taken in response to the controversial ‘hit-and-run law’, which has a provision of a jail term of 10 years and a fine of Rs 7 lakh on accused drivers.

The move has left many daily commuters stranded at the inter-state bus terminus.

“The management has assured all possible assistance and asked us to end the strike and start ferrying more passengers, but we have asked it to give us an assurance in writing. Till the time we do not get a written assurance, we will not ferry more passengers in a bus,” said Vicky.

Secretary of the union Jasdeep Singh Lalli stated that the PRTC has merely 1,200 government buses while Punjab Roadway has around 1,600 buses. For the past two years no new bus has been added to the PRTC fleet. Furthermore, the government is paying tax on routes totalling 5,000 km every month, where no bus is plying due to the shortage of buses.

“The state government has also introduced a new rule, according to which if passengers were found travelling without ticket on four occasions during surprise ticket checking, then the conductor, contractual employee, will be sacked on the charge of committing a fraud. So, we have decided that only a prescribed number of passengers will travel on buses,” said another union leader.

The union has decided to stage a black-flag protest on the Republic Day in Ludhiana. On February 1, a sit-in will be held at the main office.

Meanwhile, commuters were seen waiting for buses at bus terminus and bus stops across the state.

Sahil Kumar, a resident of Hira Bagh Colony, said that he was travelling from Zirakpur and found many passengers’ either taking private buses or waiting for the next PRTC bus. Puja, who works at an immigration office and commutes daily to Kharar, said that women were the worst hit as due to non-availability of buses they had to wait for over an hour at the bus stand.

Despite repeated attempts, MD, PRTC, Ravinder Singh was not available for comments. PRTC Chairman Ranjodh Singh Hadana said that talks were on with the protesting union members and that the matter would be resolved soon.

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