Trade unions' strike: Normal movement of Haryana Roadways impacted at some places

Hisar: The 24-hour nationwide general strike called by the trade unions to protest against new labour codes and privatisation on Wednesday impacted normal movement of Haryana Roadways buses at some places.

In places like Hisar, Bhiwani, Kaithal and Kurukshetra, the normal movement of the state transport was impacted.

The Roadways employees staged a sit-in protest at the bus terminuses in support of the demands.

Shops, commercial establishments and other institutions functioned normally at most places. The rail movement was also normal.

Sarbat Singh Punia, the vice-president of All India Road Transport Workers Federation, claimed that Roadways buses remained off the roads on several routes.

He said various roadways unions took part in the nationwide strike.

Subhash Lamba, the president of All India State Government Employees Federation, claimed that several government employees from various departments also joined the strike.

Besides, Anganwadi, Accredited Social Health Activist workers, and rural sanitation workers also joined the strike, Lamba said.

According to the employee organisations in Haryana, the aim of this strike is to protest against the anti-employee and anti-labour policies of the central government and to press for the restoration of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS).

In Kurukshetra, while commercial establishments including shops, banks and government offices worked normally, a "chakka jam", on the call of the Roadways union, had some impact on normal movement of Roadways buses.

In Ambala, there was no major impact of the nationwide strike call.

Almost all the major markets including wholesale cloth market, Sarafa Bazaar and Grain Market remained open in the district. Most of the industrial units were working as usual.

However, Haryana Roadway workers affiliated to Sarv Karmchari Sangh staged a dharna in front of the Roadways office in Ambala City.

The Roadways union leaders claimed that bus service in the district was affected.

Meanwhile, workers affiliated to Safai Karmchari Sangh, took out a protest march at Ambala Cantt and submitted a memorandum to the Sub Divisional Magistrate related to their demands.

Sarbat Punia said that when Haryana had a population of one crore in 1990-91, the Haryana Roadways had a fleet of 3,884 buses.

"Now, the population has increased three-fold and against the requirement of 12,000 buses in the fleet, we have less than 3,000. As a result, common people, women, students, they face problems," he said.

The Central Trade Unions such as CITU, INTUC and AITUC are pressing for doing away with the four labour codes, contractualisation, and privatisation of PSUs, increasing minimum wages to Rs 26,000 per month, as well as the demands of farmer organisations for Minimum Support Price (MSP) for crops based on Swaminathan Commission's formula of C2 plus 50 per cent and loan waiver.