Bengaluru: The three-day strike by around 1.20 lakh employees of Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) and Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) finally ended by Wednesday evening. Minister for Transport Ramalinga Reddy has agreed for 12.5 per cent wage hike and the agitating employees have agreed to resume duty with immediately to avoid inconvenience to lakhs of people who depend on KSRTC and BMTC buses for commuting and travelling across the state.
However, the three-day strike had made schools and colleges shut for three days thus wasting valuable time of the students. The strike also compelled the state government to postpone some of the exams. It also had an adverse impact on trade and industry apart from causing lot of inconvenience to the commuters and passengers who depended on the KSRTC and BMTC buses.
The agitating employees of the KSRTC and BMTC had damaged 151 buses thus causing a loss of Rs 15,89,700 and a revenue of more than Rs 10 crore. The strike had provided an opportunity to the greedy private bus operators and autorikshaw drivers to exploit the gullible passengers and commuters by demanding extra fare. The greed of autorikshaw drivers made the traffic police to seize around 200 autorickshaws for demanding extra fare.
According to A Padmanabha, president, Karnataka Small Scale Industries Association (Kassia), the bus strike had an adverse impact on small and medium industries in the state. “The three-day strike by the KSRTC and BMTC employee had disrupted industrial operations, in particular, affecting the medium and small scale industries that employ workers often commuting 10 to 20 kms from their homes to work place of the factory. More than 30 per cent employees or workers remain absent for three days due to the strike by the KSRTC and BMTC employees. On a conservative estimate, the loss is likely to be more than Rs 100 crore in the state at the time when small and medium industries are going through an extremely difficult time,’’ Padmanabha said.
Meanwhile, Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce (BCIC) had also expressed serious concern over the loss caused by the BMTC and KSRTC strike.
Thyagu Valliappa, president, BCIC said the three-day strike by BMTC and KSRTC had severely truncated employee turn-out in the entire cross section of the industries in and around Bangalore. “The worst affected is the textile and garment sector which is highly labour intensive and employees are unable to reach their workplaces due to non-availability of public transport. Over the last three days, industry production lines are working at sub-optimal levels. This will affect the industry bottom-line as it is already reeling under severe margin pressures,’’ Thyagu Valliappa said.
The BCIC feels that the state government could have handled the wage settlement issue by the striking BMTC and KSRTC trade unions in a more judicious manner as these two bodies are considered role models for several states in the country.
