As transport employees’ strike entered second day, bus services in several areas were severely affected in the Union Territory on Sunday and visiting tourists had tough time as reserved tickets were cancelled at the last minute.
Several tourists, who booked tickets to travel by Puducherry Road Transport Corporation(PRTC) buses, were stranded in the bus stand. They had to depend on the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation buses for long travel. A few staff at the PRTC counter were refunding the amount to passengers who made advance booking and making arrangement for them to travel in TNSTC buses.
Niranjan Choudary, visiting tourist said, “The PRTC is having nice air-conditioned buses to travel upto Chennai. We booked the ticket to travel to Chennai a few days ago through online. It is disappointing to us to see that buses are not plying and have to cancel the booking and travel in other buses.”
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“Comparing with TNSTC buses, the PRTC air-conditioned buses have more spacious and are clean. Now we miss that luxury, as the buses are not being operated due to employees’ strike. It is disappointing to several tourists,” said S.Usha Rani from Chennai.
For the second consecutive day, around 634 employees including drivers, conductors and other staff were boycotting the work and 120 buses were lying idle in the depot.
S.Dhanapalan,Secretary of PRTC Welfare Union said, “We will not operate the buses until the salary credited into our account. For the fourth consecutive month, the management has been delaying the disbursement of salary to us.”
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Employees also alleged that even though a portion was recovered from the employees’ salary, the management failed to pay the premium for insurance, the contribution to employment provident fund and the bank loan due.
The striking employees also demanded the management to pay the salary on the last day of month as practised earlier.
They also said the management should implement the dearness allowance as per announcement made by the Union Government.