SRTC workers threaten agitation

A 24-hour long state wide chakka jam has been called by the State Road Transport Corporation (SRTC) employees of the state on December 9, against what they called non-adherence of the 16 point charter suggested by the state government in 2009.

The SRTC Workers Association threatened that a statewide agitation will be repeated, if the state government continues its lack of commitment towards more than three thousand employees of this sector.

Shakeel Ahmad Kuchay, President, SRTC Workers Association told KTNS that only a few demands of the corporation employees including release of pending salaries were fulfilled, but the major demands like the enactment of the Himachal Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation Rules in JK SRTC as provided under purview of RTC Act 1950 are still to be implemented.

He added that Jammu and Kashmir is the only state where transport corporation employees do not enjoy the same status as that of their counterparts in the other states.

“There are around 3700 employees now who are suffering to the core due to non-committal attitude of the state government, especially when the government has failed to implement its own decisions. Vide order no- 1625/gadof 2009 dated 19/ 11/ 2009. The SRTC employees would intensify their agitation this time in order to seek implementation of pending issues/ demands which will include road demonstrations, rallies, hunger strikes, pen-down strikes,” Shakeel said.The workers alleged that even the management of the corporation has no paid any heed to their demands which have compelled them to re-start their agitation.

Regarding the corporation running losses for many years now, the SRTC Workers Association President said that same has been the case with many other states, but that has not resulted in suffering of its workers.“SRTC is fully functional now. A fleet of 950 vehicles including big and small vehicles operate on a daily basis for public service. But the state government says that it is ill prepared to uplift the infrastructure and has not even taken the initial steps towards strengthening this sector,” Shakeel added.

The workers said that in the wake of infuriating transport fare hike, SRTC could have been a viable solution to the public problems faced by the people.“Though we all are extending our full cooperation with the government for enhancing the number of vehicles and making this a self sufficient sector, but the response of the government in this direction is very unfortunate. As compared to last year, the revenue generation this year was double which touched almost Rs 65 crores, but the problems of workers still remain unaddressed for last two years now,” the workers association handout read.