Several states across the country witnessed strikes by various organisations on Tuesday.
Most of Kerala, and parts of Andhra Pradhesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu saw a motor-vehicle strike called by transport unions to protest against the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill.
Haryana’s Roadways employees went on a day-long strike in protest against the state government’s decision to introduce 700 private buses in the State, while around 17 lakh Maharashtra government employees began a three-day strike to press for various demands, including implementation of the Seventh Pay Commission report.
Here is a breakdown on what is going on nationwide:
Nationwide motor-vehicles strike
The nationwide motor-vehicles strike was called by transport unions to protest against the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill. The strike, against some provisions of the bill and rise in prices of petroleum products, began at midnight. The bill was passed by the Lok Sabha and is now awaiting Rajya Sabha’s approval.
Kerala was the most affected as public transport kept off the roads in support of the strike. Buses, autorickshaws, taxis, including online cab aggregators, kept off the roads. Contract vehicles and lorries also participated in the strike.
In addition, the buses of the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation stayed off the roads, demanding salary revision, disbursement of dearness allowance (DA) arrears and interim relief.
Telangana State Road Transport Corporation buses parked at bus depot in Khammam on during the nationwide transport strike on Tuesday, August 8, 2018.
Parts of AP, Telangana and Tamil Nadu also registered support for the strike. Telangana State Road Transport Corporation bus stands in Khammam wore a deserted look on Tuesday morning. CPI(M) State Secretary Thammineni Veerabhadram, CPI State Secretary Chada Venkata Reddy, CPI (ML-New Democracy) State assistant secretary Potu Ranga Rao and other Left party leaders addressed a press conference regarding the strike.
A section of transport workers in Vijayawada participated in the strike by taking out rallies but transport services, including those run by State run AP Road Transport Corporation, were not affected.
In Tamil Nadu’s Ramanathapuram and Udhagamandalam, drivers of commercial vehicles participated in the strike by staging a demonstration. In Chennai, drivers associated with the All Autorickshaw Unions Federation were to stay off the roads, according to a report by The Hindu on Monday. On the day of the strike, autos were seen plying. However, school vans and autos stayed off the roads, while auto drivers in North Chennai refused to ply.
The strike seemed to have little or no impact in Karnataka, as buses, cabs and autos plied as usual.
Three-day strike in Maharashtra
Around 17 lakh employees of the Maharashtra government began a three-day strike to press for various demands, including implementation of the Seventh Pay Commission report.
Essential services in various departments, including government hospitals, are likely to be affected as class 3 and 4 government employees have joined the strike, Maharashtra Rajya Sarkari Karmachari Madhyavarti Sanghatna general secretary Avinash Daund claimed.
He accused the state government of paying a mere “lip-service” to their long-pending demands. “About 17 lakh government employees from various departments, including zilla parishads, teachers and state-run corporations, will take part in the three-day strike,” said Milind Sardeshmukh, president of the organisation which has called for the protest.
The deserted administrative headquarters, Konkan Bhavan, in Navi Mumbai during the on-going three-day strike in Maharashtra on Tuesday, August 7, 2018.
The government employees are yet to receive arrears accrued to them since the implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission by the state government, he said.
Other major demands include implementation of a five-day week in all government offices, increasing the retirement age from 58 to 60 and filling up urgently over 200,000 vacancies in the State.
Day-long strike in Haryana
Haryana Roadways employees went on a day-long strike in protest against the State government’s decision to introduce 700 private buses in the State.
Nearly 4,000 buses in Haryana remained off roads, hitting inter-state and intra-state services.
Employees under the banner of Haryana Roadways Karamchari Joint Action Committee held protests at several places.
They said they would not allow the state government to launch 700 private buses in the state as it would lead to privatisation of the transport department.
They said the government should instead increase the number of buses under the roadways department.
Police personnel were deployed at several bus stands in Haryana to prevent any untoward incident in the wake of the day-long strike.
(With inputs from B. Aravind Kumar in Chennai, L. Balachander in Ramanathapuram, M. Sathyamoorthy in Udhagamandalam, G.N. Rao in Khammam, K. Venkateshwarlu in Vijayawada and Anil Kumar Sastry in Mangalore)
