Bus strike continues, enters 9th day – losses cross Rs.152 crore

Bengaluru: As the employees on strike and the government are refusing to blink, the transport strike is entering its record ninth day on Thursday. Passengers may feel more rush when they return to office after a long Ugadi weekend.

As the state transport undertakings have functioned with one 20% of their fleet, the collective revenue loss from the strike (from April 7 to 14) stands at Rs 152 crore. KSRTC is responsible for 50% of the losses.

A senior KSRTC officer said, “The KSRTC’s average passenger revenue is Rs 7.5 crore. During festivals like Ugadi, demand sees lipstick as people travel between Bengaluru and their hometowns. We couldn’t run adequate buses this time, resulting in additional losses.”

Even though the state government is ready to increase salaries by 8-10%, employees want their wages as the same as the 6th Pay Commission recommendations. The employees also indicated that if their demands are not met, they are ready for the long haul and can even follow the Telangana strike where employees protested for 52 days and called it off in November 2019.

The Karnataka government once again urged the employees to return to their work and told about its shaky financial position caused by the pandemic. A KSRTC official said, “Most employees will return to work on Thursday, and we’ve decided to operate more buses. We’ll take disciplinary action against those employees not joining work from Thursday.”

With the operation of regular buses come to a halt, commuters have been travelling in unreliable options like private buses, tempo travellers, cabs, and auto rickshaws. Many of them have also complained about the excess fare that they were charged. People coming to Bengaluru from their hometowns after the Ugadi break are worst affected.