PUNE, Nov 1: The Pune Municipal Transport employees called off their indefinite strike this evening after a stern warning was issued by Municipal Commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad that he would be forced to declare a lock-out if the employees continued with their ``illegal strike.''However, confusion regarding PMT employees' demand for Rs 3000 ex-gratia continues to prevail with the civic administration firmly turning down the demand while the union maintaining that strike had been called off following assurance by the party leaders that they would convince Gaikwad to sanction Rs 1800 ex-gratia. The spokesman of the union said all the PMT buses would br running as per schedule from Tuesday.When asked about the municipal commissioner's stand, the spokesman said it was now the responsibility of the party leaders to convince the administration and that the issue was closed for them. The announcement came an hour after Gaikwad made his stand known to the media persons.Earlier, talking to media persons, along with PMT general manager Subhash Lolage, Gaikwad had made it clear that administrtion would not change its stand even if party leaders came forward with some compromise formula. He said he would not think of any compromise formula like reducing the amount of ex-gratia.Gaikwad said civic administration was not in a position to accept the demand of the PMT employees. The municipal commissioner said he had communicated to the union that they should resume work immediately or he would declare a lock-out at any moment. Lolage said that the order, announcing a lock-out was even kept ready and only needed to be signed.Gaikwad maintained that he had discussed the issue of lock-out with all the party leaders including Minister of State Balasaheb Shivarkar and Rajya Sabha member Suresh Kalmadi. He said all the party leaders had endorsed his stand.Gaikwad said the running of the transport undertaking was not obligatory for the municipal corporation and that it was the right time for the civic administration to think whether it should assist the PMT, which was incurring a loss of Rs 10 lakh every day. Justifying his stand, Gaikwad said the PMT had incurred a loss of Rs 70 crore from 1982 while it was expecting the loss of Rs 34 crore in the current financial year alone.Gaikwad said the PMC had given Rs 28 crore to the PMT during the past three years while the proposals of Rs 12 crore for distribution of wage arrears and Rs 17 crore for purchasing new buses were pending with the standing committee. He said he was strongly against extending finance to the PMT at the cost of development works. He said the PMC's several ambitious schemes would be affected if it continued to assist the PMT.Describing union' stand as adamant, Gaikwad said the PMT was an autonomous body, having independent budget, and the employees should not have demanded ex-gratia when the PMT was facing serious financial crisis. Gaikwad said the civic administration was ready to distribute 8.33 per cent bonus to the PMT employees.Lolage said the PMT needs Rs 31 lakh every day to run the undertaking while its income was only Rs 21 lakh per day. Lolage said a deficit of Rs 11.11 crore was expected in the current budget, which was expected to shoot up to Rs 34 crore.Earlier in the day, all the efforts to end the strike proved futile with both sides refusing to change their respective stands. Minister of State Balasaheb Shivarkar was camping at the PMC headquarter throughout the day and held number of rounds of discussions with the union. Kalmadi also came there in the evening and discussed the issue with Mayor Datta Gaikwad and other office bearers.
