Private buses hit the roads as BMTC workers continue to protest

Bengaluru: As a majority of the BMTC buses remained off the road on Wednesday, which caused inconvenience to many passengers. But the transport department operated more than 3,000 vehicles in the state including 1,124 buses in the city. The private buses were banned so far, and this is the first instance of them operating on the city roads as stage-carriage services.

Officials of the transport department and BMTC are thinking of including more private operators to provide alternatives if the protest continues.

Strike to continue 

The leader of the protest, Kodihalli Chandrashekar confirmed that the strike will continue on Thursday. He said, “The government had promised in December to increase salaries of the transport workers on par with the recommendations of the 6th Pay Commission. We will not accept the wage revision by 8%.” He added that the government is encouraging the workers to protest by backing out from its promise. He said, “The government has enough funds to allocate Rs 10 crore to Rs 500 crore to religious and caste groups in the budget. When it comes to addressing our concerns, the government has no money.”

Woes of drivers, conductors

On interacting with some BMTC drivers and conductors, we came to know that they earn between Rs 15,000 and Rs 40,000 bases on their experience. Whereas a driver who has 5 years of experience gets a salary of around Rs 20,000 after standard deductions, and an employee who has worked for about 15 years gets around Rs 30,000 per month. Many of them grieved that the money they get for the amount of work they do is very low. Their working hours stretch up to 10 to 12 hours and even beyond that.

On the contrary, some of them said that they do not have any problem with the salary but they cannot bear the constant harassment from depot managers, divisional controllers when it comes to getting leave, selection of a route and lack of overtime pay. These are their problems. Some also complain that the medical insurance and benefits provided are not attractive.