JOIN US4,000 DTC buses go off city roads
Commuters in the city were in for a harrowing experience as most DTC buses did not run on Monday with workers protesting over the road rage incident that claimed a bus driver’s life.
At least a section of Delhi Transport Corporation workers may not to go to work on Tuesday as well. Sources say the government is planning to impose Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) in case the strike continues on the second day. Schoolchildren and office goers on Monday were among the worst sufferers. Only 704 out of 4,705 buses could leave the depot before noon, the Delhi Transport Corporation said.
Passengers had a hard time of getting on or off packed buses. “I have been waiting at the bus stop (Shivaji Stadium Bus Terminal) for the last one hour,” said an evening commuter Hari Lal, who had to go to Patel Nagar in Central Delhi area.
Most of the 1,100 buses, a part of the DTC fleet, which ferry schoolchildren in the morning and the afternoon, remained off road. Metro feeder and private buses tried to take some load off the DTC buses. But passengers complained that many of them skipped stops.
“A Metro feeder to Shastri Park Metro station was overcrowded and it missed my stop,” said Sanjeev Kumar, resident of east Delhi’s Gandhi Nagar. More buses were pressed into service towards the evening, DTC claimed. Protesting drivers at the Millennium Depot near Akshardham temple burnt an effigy of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and asked the Delhi Government to release a Rs 1 crore compensation for the slain driver.
A section of the DTC union led the ‘flash’ strike, the DTC spokesperson R S Minhas said. He told Deccan Herald that the corporation officers are not supporting the union’s call for strike.
The worst strike-hit areas, he said, were north Delhi and the rural parts of the city. “DTC is seeking all help from Delhi Police and other authorities to put maximum number of buses on road so that general public should not be put into inconvenience,” a DTC press statement said.
The DTC union strike found support from transporters. Rajendra Soni, General Secretary of Bharatiya Private Transporter Mazdoor Mahasangh, said, “Why the driver’s family shouldn’t be compensated properly? The government can give Rs 1 crore compensation to a policeman.” He said several transport unions have threatened to launch further strikes if the demands go unfulfilled. Bus services, however, are likely to remain unaffected on Tuesday.
A 42-year-old DTC bus driver, Ashok Kumar, on Sunday was beaten to death by a youth after his bus grazed the latter’s bike in the Mundka area of west Delhi.
“The government should deploy a security guard inside the buses,” Gaurav Saraswat, president of Delhi Parivahan Karamchari Yuva Sangathan said, claiming that cases of attack against drivers and conductors are on the rise.
Tarachand, another leader from DTC Worker Unity Centre, claimed that hundreds of protesting DTC staffers at Rohini depot want the strike to continue.