New Delhi: Normal life was impacted in several parts of India on Thursday as employees of state transport corporations and some private operators went on a 24-hour strike against the proposed Motor Bill.
Transport services in the national capital too were hit as transport sector workers ignored the Centre's appeal to call off the strike.
The day-long nationwide strike has been called jointly by national level road transport organisations representing both public and private sector workers which are affiliated to central trade unions like All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), BMS, INTUC, HMS, AICCTU, LPF and state-level outfits.
The CPI-M said that the nationwide strike by road transport workers was "successful and massive" and involved some 20 million employees.The party also urged the government to discuss the provisions of the bill with representatives of the transport sector "instead of trying to push through the bill in parliament".
The day-long nationwide strike began midnight on Wednesday. Union Minister of Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari today appealed to the transporters to call off their strike and support the new Road Transport and Safety Bill, 2015, prepared by the NDA government.
An appeal to all stakeholders in the road transport sector regarding the 'Road Transport & Safety bill, 2015' pic.twitter.com/yJeJuplSiq
— Nitin Gadkari (@nitin_gadkari) April 29, 2015
In the proposed bill, hefty fines have been proposed for minor traffic violations. Under the provisions of the new bill, if a child is killed in a road accident by any driver, he will be punished with a cash fine of Rs 3 lakh and imprisonment of up to seven years. While in case of an animal’s death in a road mishap, the fine would be Rs 1 lakh and imprisonment of up to four years.
The Transport Safety Bill has stringent punishment clauses including Rs 5,000 fine for drivers jumping red lights and not putting on seat belts.
It also has provisions to impose Rs 15,000 fine or one year jail for drunken driving.
Delhi
Transport services were partially hit in different parts of the national capital as auto rickshaws, 'kaali-peeli' taxis and some public buses went off the roads as part of a day-long strike in protest against the proposed Road Transport and Safety Bill.
People faced difficulty in commuting, especially from railway stations and the airport.
Delhi Autorickshaw Sangh and Delhi Pradesh Taxi Union, which are a part of Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, and number of bus unions, including a section of DTC employees, supported the nationwide call for strike by various transport unions against the Bill.
Delhi Transport Department maintained that their services remained regular and commuters did not face much trouble.
Despite few associations extending their support to strike, auto-rickshaws were seen operating in several parts, with some passengers complaining of overcharging.
Karnataka
Services of public transport buses and auto rickshaws were also affected in different parts of the state while incidents of stone pelting on public transport buses were reported from Bengaluru, Hubballi, Bellary, Raichur and Mysuru.
Transport department officials said they are trying to operate buses and to convince the employees to report on duty and not to cause any hindrance to public.
Unions fear that the Bill in the present form will encroach upon state's financial, legislative and administrative powers and are even up in arms against the stringent penalties proposed for road accidents.
Incidentally, NDA's southern ally PMK has extended support to today's strike, with the party describing it as a 'black legislation' which would affect various stakeholders in the transport sector.
However, in Karnataka, the KSRTC issued a circular yesterday asking its employees to attend the duty.
Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy said that "as almost all state transport employees are likely to participate in the strike, there may be problem in plying buses".
Bengaluru City Police Chief MN Reddi said elaborate security arrangements have been made in the city on account of transport strike and has warned of strict action against stone pelting and any form of forceful imposition of strike, as also over charging.
Gujarat
Nearly 8,000 buses operated by GSRTC remained off the roads affecting more than 20 lakh daily commuters across the state, as approximately 40,000 employees of GSRTC, including drivers, conductors and other administrative staff went on a mass casual leave.
The state administration tried hard to convince the unions to call off their strike, employees maintained their stand to join the nationwide protest.
Union leaders justified their protest as they claimed that the new bill will ultimately help private bus operators.
Gujarat state Road Transport Minister Vijay Rupani termed the strike as "illegal" and said action will be initiated against the employees.
"The strike is totally illegal. We have not approved their mass casual leave. We will deduct their one-day salary. Without any prior notice or putting forward their demands, they just joined the nationwide call of strike. We will take all necessary legal action against them," said Rupani.
Bihar
Bihar truckers and bus operators deferred their decision to join the day-long strike against the Centre's Transport Safety Bill and collection of toll tax on 49 bridges by the Bihar government for relief operations in earthquake-devastated Nepal and Bihar.
The decision to defer the strike for a future date was taken at a meeting of the Bihar Motor Transport Federation (BMTF), its president Udai Sinha said in a statement. "We decided not to keep our trucks and buses off the roads in Bihar as it will hamper relief work for earthquake victims in Nepal as well as in Bihar," he said.
The BMTF president said the proposed strike was against the Transport Safety Bill, 2014 and to protest against collection of toll tax on 49 bridges in Bihar, besides alleged extortion at bus stands by municipal corporation and district boards in different districts.
Maharashtra
Auto rickshaws and taxis in Mumbai backed out of the strike and were plying on city roads since morning. School buses also did not participate in the stir and ferried children to school, as per reports.
Although some of the auto and taxi union leaders said they were "opposed" to the Central government's proposed Transport Safety Bill, they did not want to cause inconvenience to Mumbaikars and have therefore not participated in the nationwide strike.
Tripura
Normal life in Tripura was affected as all means of public transport stayed off the roads in support of a nationwide strike called by unions to protest the proposed road transport bill.
Commuters, office-goers and passengers faced inconvenience as buses, small and medium vehicles, auto-rickshaws and even battery-operated rickshaws remained off the roads in response to the 24-hour strike. "The strike was spontaneous and total. No untoward incident was also reported from anywhere in the state," CITU working committee member Tapas Datta told reporters.
The transport workers also organised protest rallies across Tripura to denounce the new transport bill proposed by the central government. Various other employees unions and professional organisations have extended their support to the strike.
Telangana & Andhra Pradesh
Today's strike by transporters to protest against the Centre's new bill on road safety and transport evoked partial response in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
The Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) buses plied almost normally in Hyderabad, but auto drivers and truckers extended support to the stir.
Transporters, affiliated to various left-backed unions, held protests at various places in the two states. A protest march was taken out from Baghlingamplly to Indira Park here.
Protests were also held in Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Tirupati, Kadapa and other places in Andhra Pradesh.
Punjab and Haryana
Reports from Bhiwani and Amritsar said that there was a complete strike by the roadways employees in the districts and auto rickshaws have also joined the strike.
About 3,000 buses and trucks in Pathankot area have joined the strike.
Pathankot SSP Rakesh Kaushal said patrolling in the area has been intensified to deal with any untoward incident.
Kerala
Commuters in state capital Thiruvananthapuram, who depend on Kerala State Transport Corporation (KSTC) buses, had tough time reaching their work places as the buses did not operate.
Examinations being conducted by universities in the state have been postponed due to the strike while no untoward incident has been reported from any part of the state so far.
Himachal Pradesh
About 2,500 HRTC buses went off-road and buses from other states did not enter Himachal Pradesh as a large number of people, especially school-going children and employees were affected by the bandh.
School-going children were a harried lot as private buses were overloaded and large number of parents had to hire private taxis to send their children to schools.
However, 2800 private buses and taxis were on the road and people mainly depended on private transport.
West Bengal
Most of the roads across the state, including capital Kolkata, wore a near deserted look as a large number of taxis, autorickshaws and private buses did not ply.
Passengers at the busy Howrah and Sealdah railway stations and office-goers had a harrowing time with no taxi or bus to avail. There were reports of buses being vandalised in several parts of Kolkata and Howrah.
The availability of normal metro train services and fleet of government buses, however, provided some respite for commuters. But many of those buses and metros had very few passengers. Shops, markets and business establishments largely remained shut.
According to an Eastern Railway spokesperson, the running of long distance trains was normal but suburban train movement was affected for some time in the morning as protesters put up blockades and threw banana leaves on overhead wires. Train movement was disrupted in Howrah, Asansol and Malda divisions.
Flights to and from Kolkata airport remained unaffected but passengers had to face inconvenience in reaching the airport. While most private schools remained shut, the attendance in government schools was negligible with most parents preferring to keep their children at home.
Rajasthan
Lakhs of passengers across Rajasthan were seen stranded as State Road Transport Corporation buses went off roads.
Most of RSRTC buses did not operate as a large number of employees went on a 24-hour strike.
52 RSRTC depots in 8 divisions of the state did not open, causing a revenue loss of Rs 5 crore to RSRTC and affecting lakhs of passengers.
Assam
Normal life in Assam was hit by today's strike with private buses, shared taxis and trucks keeping off the roads. However, no untoward incident was reported so far.
Except for the government-run Assam State Transport Corporation (ASTC) vehicles, all private operated city buses and long distance buses as well as shared taxis did not ply.
However, radio taxi services were running as usual, the service operators said.
Uttar Pradesh
Commuters faced a tough time as buses and school vans went off the road.
The transport department had to run additional buses in Lucknow to deal with the situation.
Tamil Nadu
While majority of the private buses remained off the road, the state-run buses and mini buses were plying, which were enough for the public movement. In the Nilgiris district, the strike appeared to be near total, as almost all the auto rickshaws and taxies did not ply, hitting the tourism activities.
In Tirupur, majority of the auto rickshaws and van joined the strike, with the State-run buses plied as usual. In Coimbatore, a group of auto rickshaw drivers protested against the proposed the Motor Vehicles Act by seeking alms holding begging bowls in the city railway station, as part of the nation wide transport strike, called by various trade unions.
Though there are over 15,000 auto rickshaws in the city, about 80 percent did not ply, even as the drivers and owners of the vehicles condemned the proposed amendments to the act, which could lead to suicide, a few drivers were heard making their comments.
Buses did not ply to neighbouring Kerala and no buses came from there as well, affecting inter-state traffic after 6 am. However, the situation remained peaceful.
With Agency inputs
