Day 1 of bus workers’ strike: Chaos at ISBT,long route commuters stranded

Sushant,a city resident,was one of the many commuters who was unaware of the strike. “I had no idea that inter-state buses for Haryana would not run on Wednesday. I have to reach my office in Karnal. Now,I do not know what to do,” said Sushant.

People travelling with family faced greater harassment. “I am waiting with my children for a bus to Delhi for the past 45 minutes. I would not have come here had I known before that there would be a strike today,” said Kiran Kumar,a commuter. Another commuter,Som Dutt,headed towards the Railway station to catch a train to Delhi,after he got to know that Haryana Roadways buses would not be functional.

One of the leaders of the Haryana Roadways Workers Union Balbir Jhakar said,“About a fortnight ago,we had issued notices to the Haryana government to close the online booking of tickets for Volvo buses. We had told the concerned authorities that we would not own any responsibility for the loss of people’s money thereafter.”

Meanwhile,many commuters opted to travel by taxis. A significant increase was observed at the CTU approved taxi booth at Sector 17 bus stand. Amandeep Singh,in-charge of the taxi booth said,“Today,around 50-60 people approached us to avail of our services as compared to 15-20 customers on routine days. Most of the passengers were for Delhi.” With such a sudden rise in the number of customers,a request was sent to other taxi booths for rendering their services. “We asked other government approved taxi booths to provide us with more vehicles after we fell short of our fleet,” added Singh. Many customers travelled on a sharing basis and paid Rs 700 per seat. Few others,who wished to travel alone,paid Rs 3,500 for Tata Indica and Rs 5,000 for an Innova for Delhi.

Strike was also observed at the Ambala bus stand with workers staging a protest on the main entrance of the Ambala Bus Depot. Union leaders said that Ambala depot buses carry 70,000 passengers through 170 buses and earns Rs 45 lakh daily. Thousands of passengers going to Kapal Mochan shrine for a holy bath,remained stranded at Ambala Cantonment. Meanwhile,the Ambala District Deputy Commissioner of Police Vinod Kaushik imposed Section 144 of the CrPC in and around the bus depot premises. The order prohibits gathering of more than five persons.