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Government buses go off the roads across TN
Normalcy was affected in Western districts on Friday as over 60 per cent of government buses stayed off the road due to strike by the transport unions.
By
migrator
migrator
Coimbatore
In Coimbatore, private buses, which ran in good numbers, came to the rescue of harried commuters. However, they were all crowded causing inconvenience to officer goers, school and college students and general public.
Taking advantage of the situation, autos and taxis fleeced customers.
In The Nilgiris, hundreds of tourists were stranded as most of the government buses were not operated. Similarly, in Salem, Namakkal, Tirupur and Erode districts, about 50 per cent of the buses did not ply for the day.
In an interesting development in Erode district, Anthiyur MLA EMR Raja drove a bus with passengers from Anthiyur bus terminus. The MLA told the protesting transport workers that he decided to drive the bus in a bid to help the stranded public reach their destinations.
Buses stay off roads in Vellore
Government mofussil and town buses stayed off the roads since Thursday night.
Commercial Taxes Minister KC Veeramani inspected the new bus stand and the Konavattam bus depot to ensure that those willing to work were not being prevented.
Glass panes of two government buses were broken by some miscreants on Friday.
The Tirupatthur- Alangayam bus had its rear windows broken near Andiapannur, while the windshield of the Vellore-Tirupati bus was broken near Vallimalai near Vellore.
Private buses make hay in Tiruchy
TNSTC workers went on a flash strike in Tiruchy, Pudukkottai, Thanjavur, Ariyalur and Nagapattinam on Friday. They staged a demonstration in front of the TNSTC depots. It forced the passengers to get off and then the buses and walk towards the nearest bus stops to catch private buses which fleeced the passengers.
They demanded exorbitant fare and this resulted in verbal fights between the passengers and the bus crew. In most of the places, the workers asked the passengers to get off the buses and then took the buses to the depots.
A similar situation prevailed in Kumbakonam as around 1,000 buses in the Kumbakonam and Nagappattinam divisions were off the road.
End stir through talks with unions: Stalin
Leader of Opposition M K Stalin has asked Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami to hold talks with trade unions and end the transport strike. Squarely blaming the state government, Stalin said the unions were compelled to strike work and this made people undergo hardship.
This situation arose due to failure of the state transport minister to hold talks with workers and resolve the wage revision issue.
Taking exception to the minister’s reasoning that workers’ wage hike demand could not be considered favorably due to the fund crunch, Stalin recalled the minister’s admission during the negotiations that “your (workers) demands were justified,” and said the duty of a responsible government would be to hold talks with the workers and resolve their issues.
Vaiko: Don’t use force against protesters
MDMK general secretary Vaiko here on Friday said that the Tamil Nadu government should try to resolve the transport union strike through proper dialogue and not by using force. “The government should hold talks and find an immediate solution to the problems of transport unions and end their strike. Their protest has taken a toll on the daily routine ofthe common man,” he said after emerging out of the Coimbatore International Airport. Stating that the steep increase in property tax, new levies for garbage collection and additional deposit for water connections by the Coimbatore Corporation have burdened the public, Vaiko said and added that despite protests the civic body has refused to roll them back.
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