As many as 125 members of various trade unions were arrested here on Monday while staging a demonstration near Chidambara Nagar bus stop along Palayamkottai road in support of striking employees of TNSTC.
Led by R. Russel, State secretary of Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), demanded the State government to hike salaries for the TNSTC employees as per wage revision agreement and fulfill other demands.
Meanwhile, the police personnel arrived at the scene and instructed the agitating members to disperse as permission was not given for conducting such agitation. As the agitators ignored the instruction, the police personnel appealed to them to either disperse or get arrested. A sudden commotion erupted for a while after the police personnel dragged a few of them before arresting them.
The strike by TNSTC employees entered fifth day and many employees did not turn up to depots. However, sources said of the 306 buses in total from seven depots in the district, 250 buses were made operational to various destinations.
As for Thoothukudi city mofussil bus depot, 42 out of 62 buses were in service. Only seven workers were outsourced and rest of them were government employees engaged in their routine from the mofussil depot here.
About 70 % of drivers were outsourced and engaged in driving TNSTC buses from Kovilpatti depot. But, the Sathankulam depot was managed with the regular employees completely, sources from TNSTC said.
