Kodihalli Chandrashekhar, who is leading the agitation by State transport corporation employees, was taken into custody by the police in Belagavi on Saturday.
Mr. Chandrashekar was in Belagavi to participate in a meeting of transport employees to discuss the next course of action. He was taken into custody while he was proceeding to the meeting venue from the hotel where he was staying.
On the fourth day of the indefinite strike, all four road transport corporations together operated only 1,034 buses till 1 p.m. The Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation operated 486 buses while BMTC managed to run 142 buses. NEKRTC and NWKRTC operated 280 and 126 buses respectively. The corporations were running more than 17,000 buses in the State prior to the strike.
An official of the KSRTC said, "On the second day of the strike, corporations operated around 500 buses, now the number has crossed 1,000, by evening it may even touch 1,500. This is an indication that despite pressure from colleagues, some employees have started reporting back to duty."
Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa had earlier said that strict action will be taken against those who obstruct or threaten employees coming back to work.
Continuing action against those who have remained absent and taking part the in the strike, the BMTC, on Saturday , dismissed 60 trainee and 58 probationary employees.
