Hyderabad: About 20,000 state-owned buses went off the roads in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday as over one lakh employees began an indefinite strike, demanding hike in wages.
All long-distance buses and city services came to a grinding halt across the two states, hitting 15 million people who use public transport.
In Andhra Pradesh, 10,576 Andhra Pradesh Transport Corporation Service (APSRTC) buses went off the roads, while 9,370 buses were confined to depots in Telangana.
Students, office goers, holidayers and pilgrims in Tirupati were hit hard by the strike.
The APSRTC management has threatened to use the Essential Service Maintenance Act (ESMA) against the employees if they fail to return to work by noon on Thursday, but leaders of employees’ unions said they will not be cowed down.
The employees went on strike from midnight, demanding 43 per cent hike on par with the other government employees in the two states.
The APSRTC management has turned down the demand, citing poor financial condition of the organisation. It has offered 27 per cent hike.
The management tried to use the services of contract employees to operate some services. This led to a clash between striking employees and the contract workers in some parts of Telangana.
The Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station (MGBS) in Hyderabad, from where thousands of buses operate every day to Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and other neighbouring states, wore a deserted look.
Hundreds of commuters were stranded at the MGBS, Jubilee Bus Station in Secunderabad as well as bus stations in Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Tirupati and other places.
As many as 3,500 buses went off the roads in Greater Hyderabad.
APSRTC managing director N. Sambasiva Rao said the demand for hike in wages can be met only by increasing the bus fares by 15 to 20 per cent.
He also said it was not possible to meet the demand at this stage as the APSRTC was to be bifurcated into two units for the two states from May 14.
He said 43 per cent hike in wages will put a burden of Rs28 billion (Dh1.62 billion) on the organisation, which suffered a loss of Rs95 million during 2014-15.
Telangana’s Transport Minister Mahender Reddy and his Andhra counterpart Siddha Raghava Rao appealed to the employees to call off their strike in view of the hardships caused to people, adding the transport corporation was making efforts to operate partial services.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu also urged the RTC employees to end the strike in view of the financial problems faced by the state.
