Govt, unions should end bus stir at once

It is unfortunate that around 1.25 lakh employees of the four state road transport corporations (RTCs) have gone on an indefinite strike, causing great hardship and inconvenience to the commuting public across Karnataka. As around 1.1 crore people, including 50 lakh in Bengaluru city alone, depend on state-owned buses for their daily commute to their work places and so on, the road transport employees and their unions have displayed irresponsibility by launching a strike before exhausting all other options. Students attending schools and colleges and poor patients going to hospitals have been the worst hit. The state government sensibly authorised the deputy commissioners of various districts well in advance to take a call on the closure of schools and colleges for one or two days. In Bengaluru, most educational institutions have been shut for two days, besides some examinations being postponed.

The employees and their multiple unions have put forth 41 demands, including a 35% increase in their salaries. But the state government has made it clear that it has already modified its offer from 8% to 10% hike for a period of four years which entails an additional expenditure of Rs 1,413 crore and it cannot offer anything more as the RTCs have suffered a loss of Rs 700 crore. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has said the government is ready to discuss some of the other demands, including a comprehensive medical plan for employees, rationalisation of working hours and inter-corporation transfers, provided the unions call off their strike and come forward for talks.

As the grave impact of the total strike was felt on Monday, people across the state reacted angrily stoning over a hundred buses and beating up some of the RTC staff. Tho-ugh the government claimed that it had issued temporary stage carriage permits to around 3,000 private buses and had also roped in over 7,500 maxicabs to ply in essential routes in the state, it was hardly sufficient as many people found themselves stranded at bus stops waiting for hours for any form of transport to reach their destinations. The tran-sport commissioner says the neighbouring states have been requested to run more buses on inter-state routes, but apparently it is not easy to make such arrangements at short notice. Meanwhile, the private operators running long distance buses have jacked up their fares steeply and it is high time the government intervened strongly to prevent undue exploitation of the public. The government has so far restrained from invoking the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA), which gives wide ranging powers to the state to deal firmly with the striking employees. But if the unions continue to be adamant with their demands, the government will have little option but to invoke it.