But for a stone throwing incident in Bungalowpudur limits there was near normal operation of TNSTC buses in Erode district on the first day of indefinite strike by employee unions on Monday.
Murugasamy of CITU, and Chandrasekar of LPF, both attached to Gobi depot were arrested, for breaking the wind shield of a TNSTC bus.
Barring Anna Thozhilsangam, members of other unions reportedly went back after staging protests for short durations in front of the thirteen depots.
While TNSTC officials maintained that 80 per cent of services were operated, police sources said nearly 40 per cent of services were affected.
According to TNSTC officials, the situation was manageable since the passenger turnout was considerably less due to apprehension of disruption of services. Most of the services were operated with reserve drivers and conductors.
Private operators also put their spare buses and manpower to optimum use for most part of the day. A larger than usual movement of autos and call taxis was also noticeable in and around the city.
The government should lose no time in settling the dues of the employees. Passengers had been stranded at various places since the evening of Sunday, general secretary of KMDK, E.R. Eshwaran, said in a statement on Monday.
The government must not drag on with the stop gap arrangements made with reserve drivers and conductors and spare buses, he said.
