As MSRTC strike crosses 100 days, meet some of those holding ground
The striking employees want the state government to absorb the MSRTC into the state government. This demand is made with the intent that MSRTC employees would get the benefits that state government employees are entitled to.
6 min read
Thousands of drivers and conductors on the MSRTC payroll are off the roads for the past 100 days, making it the longest public transporters' strike ever in the country. (Express/Amit Chakravarthy)More than 90,000 employees of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC), one of largest inter-city bus systems in the country, have been on strike since October, leaving thousands of travellers hapless.
Thousands of drivers and conductors on the MSRTC payroll are off the roads for the past 100 days, making it the longest public transporters’ strike ever in the country. The striking employees want the state government to absorb the MSRTC into the state government. This demand is made with the intent that MSRTC employees would get the benefits that state government employees are entitled to. Of the 92,666 staffers, only around 27,504 have resumed duty since the strike began on October 27. The others have decided to continue their agitation despite the threat of dismissal from service.
Vallabh Ozarkar speaks to five striking employees who have been picketing at Azad Maidan for the past three months on the reasons for continuing the strike and why they are unwilling to relent despite being unpaid for four months now.
SAVITA PAWAR , 40, bus conductor
From Akkalkot division, Pawar has been a participant in the strike since it began in October. Dismissed from service, Pawar is the sole breadwinner of her family after her husband’s death and now has to look after the family consisting of two children — 17-year-old son, and 12-year-old daughter —and in-laws.
Pawar said she had been working with the MSRTC for the past 16 years on a monthly salary of Rs 17,000. Over the past four months, she has had to rely on her meagre savings and borrowings from friends and relatives to run the house even as she stays put at Azad Maidan in solidarity with other striking employees. “I stay in a rented house and the salary that I get is not sufficient to meet the expenses of my family. MSRTC is a public service and is supposed to be run on ‘No Profit and No Loss’ basis, but when we demanded the salary at par with the junior pay scale of government servants, the corporation is citing losses. We are getting a very low salary as compared to government servants,” she said.
Savita Pawar
MOHAMMAD TAJIUDDIN, 50, driver
Attached with Bhokar bus depot of Nanded, Tajiuddin has been working for the past 20 years in MSRTC and has a salary of Rs 29,000. He too is the sole breadwinner of his family consisting of his mother, wife, sister and a 10-year-old child, and has been dismissed for participating in the strike. He has not received his salary for the last three months and is relying on relatives to tide over his present financial crisis. “I have been dismissed and there is no salary for the past three months. I have been borrowing money to run the household. My mother was recently hospitalised. The government is unwilling to hear us out and its approach is not positive. The present scenario is depressing but I am hopeful that the government will somehow listen to us and accept our demand. We have voted and elected them. We are expecting the government to listen to us and address our grievances. They talk about preserving the rights of the Marathi manoos are we people who have come from somewhere else to deserve this treatment,” he said.
Mohammad Tajiuddin
GOVIND BALU MHASRANKAR, 55, Mechanic
After 18 years of service in the Army, Mhasrankar joined MSRTC as a mechanic and is earning Rs 21,000. He is also the sole breadwinner of the family comprising his wife, a 22-year-old son and a 16-year-old daughter and has been dismissed. He is attached with Chandgad depot in Kolhapur and has been with the MSRTC for the past 12 years. “As per my qualifications and experience, I should be getting much more than what I am drawin. My colleagues who joined police service are getting Rs 75,000 but I am getting only Rs 29,000. I am getting a pension of Rs 20,000 from the Army which is helping me tide over this crisis. We have lost over 85 of our fellow workers over the last few months. But none of the state’s politicians has given us a sympathetic hearing,” he said.
Govind Balu Mhasrankar
MANOJ BACCHAV, 37, conductor
Attached with Dahanu bus depot in Palghar district, Bacchav has been on strike since its beginning and was even detained by the police. He says that inspite of having worked with the corporation for the last decade, he still draws a salary of Rs 18,000. “I have not been able to marry because of my salary. No one is willing to give their daughter’s hand in marriage because they know how much we are paid. I am presently facing a major financial crisis as I have not been paid for the last three months. I have been a participant of this strike since the first day. Our financial situation is so bad that today most of my colleagues can’t even pay for two meals. We are sleeping on the roads, footpaths and platforms. Earlier, we had a place to sleep here at Azad Maidan but since Section 144 (curfew) was enforced in December due to the Omicron virus, we have no place as the police ask us to leave by 5pm.”
Manoj Bacchav
SUMANT MANE, 55, driver
Attached with Wada bus Depot in Palghar district, Mane said he earns Rs 29,000 after working for over 20 years. Mane, who stays in Thane, is also the sole breadwinner in his family consisting of wife, three daughters and a son. “I am on the verge of retiring. With my existing salary, I will be eligible for a pension of Rs 1,800-1,900 per month. Do you think people can survive on my salary? I have a house to run and daughters to get married. The salary we draw is insufficient. We have to depend on resources from back home, including grains sent from our village, to survive. It has been three months that there I have no salary. Now I am borrowing for household expenses and it’s becoming really difficult,” Mane said, adding that he has sold whatever he had to run the house.
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