New Delhi: Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) employees, who had been on strike from Friday, called off their agitation on Monday evening, December 14, following fruitful negotiations with the state government.Speaking to reporters at Freedom Park in Bengaluru, which had become the nerve centre of the agitation, Employee Federation head, Kodihalli Chandrasekhar, announced that they had called off their stir. The government had assured them in writing that their demands would be met in three months, Chandrasekhar has been quoted as saying by the United News of India.KSRTC managing director Shivayogi C. Kalasad arrived with a letter signed by the state transport minister, Lakshman Savadi, at the Freedom Park with the nine of the 10 demands of the employee unions listed in it.Bus services across Karnataka were severely affected for four consecutive days as the employees of the state road transport corporation (KSRTC) went on an indefinite strike on Friday, December 11.Thousands of striking drivers and conductors of KSRTC were joined by those from Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), North Eastern Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (NEKRTC), and North Western Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (NWKRTC) at Bangalore’s Freedom Park.The employees resorted to the strike primarily to push forward a two-pronged demand: they be treated as government employees by matching their pay with that of the state government staff, and the government must pay compensation of Rs 30 lakh each to any KSRTC or BMTC driver or conductor who has lost their life due to COVID-19, like other government frontline workers.Also read: COVID-19 and India’s Unsung Frontline Health and Childcare WorkersThe aggrieved employees of the four transport corporations boycotted work in their respective depots and bus stations, leaving thousands of people stranded in different parts of the state. Several college and university students were unable to sit for their examinations due to the lack of bus services.Even though chief minister B. S. Yeddyurappa had said on December 12 that the strike was “instigated by vested interests” and named the state’s farmers’ leader Kodihalli Chandrasekhar, who is at the forefront of the strike, a day later, on December 13, he held a meeting with the transport department officials and leaders of KSRTC and BMTC .Transport minister, Lakshman Savadi, revenue minister, R Ashok, and home minister, Basavaraja Bommai, were present in the meeting.As per news reports from Bangalore, Savadi told reporters after the meeting, “After fruitful talks with unions and associations of KSRTC and BMTC, its employees have accepted to end the strike. The bus services will resume from tomorrow.” He added that the government was willing to consider the grievances of the employees.As per a Deccan Herald report, though he reportedly rejected the idea of “government-employee status”, Savadi said, “The government has agreed to provide health insurance under Arogya Sanjeevani Scheme, consider the revision of pay scale in accordance with the Sixth Pay Commission, Rs 30 lakh for employees who died due to COVID -19, and a committee on inter-corporation transfer.”As per another Deccan Herald report, nine employees of KSRTC were arrested on December 14 for disrupting bus services and attacking colleagues who reported for work on December 13. A few buses were run on December 13 with police escort.
