Maharashtra Bus Strike: MSRTC buses stay off road, normal life affected

Mumbai, Nov 08: Commuters in Maharashtra had to face immense hardship and inconvenience as a section of employees of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) continued their strike on Monday.

The protesting MSRTC staff had on Sunday announced that not a single bus would drive out of any of the depots in the Pune division from Sunday 12am.

Nearly 129 depots in Maharashtra remained non-operational on Sunday and over 40 per cent of bus services had to be cancelled because of the strike, according to a Indian Express report.

Last week, MSRTC employees started a "spontaneous" agitation over their various demands, including those related to salary.

A majority of them returned to work after the state government accepted most of their demands, but the issue of merger remains unresolved.

The MSRTC is one of the biggest state transport corporations in the county with a fleet of more than 16,000 buses and around 93,000 employees, including drivers and conductors.

The corporation used to ferry over 65 lakh passengers daily before the coronavirus outbreak last year.