Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (MS)
Mangaluru, Apr 10: Though the strike of KSRTC employees has entered the third day, in the district of Dakshina Kannada, drivers and conductors and reporting to work, though their number is small.
On Friday more than 70 government buses resumed operation. Out of this 57 were from Mangaluru depot and 20 from Puttur depot. 40 buses which operated on Thursday, took to the road on Friday also. Even private buses are carrying passengers. Many private buses, maxicabs and tempos are also pressed into service.
From Mangaluru 57 buses operated on Friday. Local drivers and conductors are attending duty. Volvo bus for Coimbatore has also made the scheduled run. In addition, buses are going to places like Mysuru, Bengaluru, Somwarpet, Dharmasthala, Subramanya and Kasargod.
From the Puttur depot, 15 buses took to road. They made trips on Dharmasthala-Subrahmanya, Beltangady-Dharmasthala, State Bank and Uppinangady routes. However, from both Mangaluru and Puttur depots, night buses did not operate. However, private buses operated without any inconvenience between Bengaluru and Mysuru.
From the Bejai bus station of the city, eight private buses operated to Mysuru and Chikkamagaluru. As more than 150 private buses are already in operation in the district, passengers have not felt any inconvenience.
There are around 212 trainee personnel in the Mangaluru depot. All of them are served notice. Notice is also served to permanent employees and technical staff, who have proceeded on unofficial leave. Some are reporting back to work. The divisional controller of Mangaluru Arun Kumar said that the management is trying to convince the personnel not to carry on with the protest and to attend the duty and consider their duty with seriousness. In addition, officials of both depots have warned the employees of facing dire consequences if they are found to threaten the employees who want to report to duty.
KSRTC has served notice to 224 trainee drivers and conductors of five depots of the Puttur division. Trainee drivers and conductors also supported the strike. According to the rule, trainees cannot take part in the protest. In the notice that is served it is specified that if they do not attend duty immediately, they will be dropped from the list of selected candidates.
In Udupi, five KSRTC buses took to the road on Friday. Out of this three went to Karkala while one each went to Hubballi and Mysuru. Officials said that they are trying their best to convince the employees to return to work.