Transport corporation workers warn Karnataka govt of renewing protest

Farmer leader Kodihalli Chandrashekhar said the govt has been making announcements that it has fulfilled five demands but none of them has come to fruition

The Karnataka State Road Transport Employees League, which had shut down the bus services across the state in December, sought to remind the state government on Thursday that none of the demands it placed before the transport minister have been fulfilled even as the three-month deadline was nearing its end.

After buses of the road transport corporations across the state were halted from December 10 to 14 as part of the protest, Transport Minister Laxman Savadi had said that the government was ready to fulfil nine of the 10 demands of the employees.

Farmer leader Kodihalli Chandrashekhar, who has been selected the honorary president of the League, said the government has been making announcements that it has fulfilled five demands but none of them has come to fruition.

"Fulfilling a demand doesn't mean making an announcement but the actual implementation of the things that they have announced. So far none of our demands has been met," he said.

Declining to consider the demand to make them government employees, the government had promised to look into the request of implementing the 6th pay commission in the four road transport corporations (RTC), providing health insurance and streamline the administrative system.

R Chandrashekhar, president of the association, said the failure to fulfil the demands within the next 15 days will force them to renew their struggle with the demand to make all the 1.4 lakh workers of the four road transport corporations into government employees.

He said the government has not called them for any meeting in the last 75 days after the end of the strike. "They are inviting groups which were not part of the protests. This will only lead to confusion as 70000 members of our league are not given a hearing," he said.