Bus strike in Karnataka: Transport employees call off strike after negotiations with govt

Bengaluru, Dec 15: Days after calling for a transport strike, the Karnataka transport employees on Monday called off their strike following negotiations with the state government.

According to reports, the KSRTC, BMTC, NEKRTC NWKRTC strike was called off after Transport minister Laxman Savadi agreed to nine of ten demands of employees of road transport undertakings in Karnataka.

The indefinite strike by the transport employees had begun on Friday with them demanding them considered government employees, with pay on par with state government staff and compensation similar to COVID-19 frontline workers in an event of death due to the pandemic.

On Sunday, the decision came following the government's reluctance to fulfill the employees' primary demand of being brought under the state government payroll.

The representatives of over 1.2 lakh protesting employees belonging to four state-run bus corporations, including KSRTC and BMTC on Sunday agreed to a truce after the state government's assurance of looking into the majority of their demands.

It can be seen that lakhs of passengers were on Sunday stranded at bus stations across the state due to the strike. There are also several complaints against auto rickshaw drivers fleecing passengers.

Meanwhile, farmers protesting the new farm laws too had extended their support to the transport staff. Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha president Kodihalli Chandrashekar led the protest.