The suspension of a conductor for not issuing bus tickets to five passengers led to a flash strike by Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) employees at the Banashankari depot on Monday. Hundreds of commuters headed to areas such as ITPL, Electronics City and the Kempegowda International Airport were affected, with around 100 premium buses not plying from 6 a.m. to noon.
According to officials, the strike occurred in depot number 13, which houses around 120 of the BMTC’s premium buses. A majority of them continued to be parked at the depot as the staff argued against the suspension of conductor Srishaila Bhavikatti on June 11.
The depot is critical for BMTC operations as the premium services operated from there ferry thousands of employees to the city’s IT hubs. “Usually, it does not take much time to find a bus, but after waiting 20 minutes today morning I found out that the buses would not be operating. We finally got a cab after some time and went to office,” said Akshay Rao, who commutes to ITPL.
“Cab services to Electronics City are quite expensive but we had no choice but to take them. Taking a normal cab ride for such a long distance is not feasible. I shared a cab with two of my friends,” said Deepthi N.S., a resident of Kathriguppe.
Faced with a situation growing worse, Chennammanakere Achukattu police personnel were deployed to the spot to maintain law and order. The protesting staff accused the BMTC checking squads of foisting cases on them without reason in order to meet their monthly targets. Senior BMTC officials managed to convince the striking workers to resume operations by noon.
“Banashankari is a very important depot for us as we see high commuter traffic in the area. The situation became normal around noon, but the morning commuters were lost on Monday,” said Ekroop Caur, managing director, BMTC.
Incidentally, the BMTC has scheduled a Janaspandana programme at the Banashankari Traffic and Transit Management Centre at 3 p.m. on Tuesday. According to the programme invite, employees of government-owned organisations too can participate.
