DTC bus service back to normal, says Gahlot

NEW DELHI: Bus service in the national Capital was back to normal on Tuesday, a day after contractual workers in the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) went on a day-long strike demanding better wages and regularisation of their posts, the Delhi government said.

In a statement, transport minister Kailash Gahlot said that despite the non-permanent staff saying it was just a one-day strike, a few workers continued to not show up to work on Tuesday. “A few workers are still resorting to an illegal strike and are not reporting for duty which is violation of the ESMA order and action can be taken against them under relevant rules. Some of the striking employees are also resorting to violence against the employees willing to perform their duties,” Gahlot said.

On Saturday, the Delhi government had imposed the Essential Service Maintenance Act (ESMA), 1974 ,on DTC for six months banning all strikes by its employees. Despite this, thousands of contractual workers staged a strike on Monday because of which nearly 670 buses remained off roads.

“Despite this, the out-shedding on Monday was 89% and on Tuesday, it further improved to 94%,” the minister said.

“We want the Delhi government to initiate a dialogue with unions of various departments and implement our other demands such as equal pay for equal work, regularisation of contractual workers and prohibiting privatisation of new buses in the fleet,” said Rajesh Chopra, the general secretary of DTC Workers Unity Centre.