State Government neglecting our demands : Transport Unions
Chennai, Jan 10:
The Madras High Court on Wednesday, January 10, 2024, expressed serious concern for the citizens of Tamil Nadu being put to inconvenience during the Pongal season, because of the ongoing government bus strike by transport employees affiliated to some trade unions, and the failure of the State transport corporations to prevent this.
Chief Justice Sanjay V. Gangapurwala and Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy granted time till Wednesday afternoon for Additional Advocate General J. Ravindran, Senior Counsel Vijay Narayan representing one of the trade unions and other counsel to come back with a solution to the problem.
The direction was issued during the hearing of a public interest litigation petition filed by S. Paul Kithiyon, a 25-year-old pharmacology student from Sholinganallur in Chennai, to declare the strike illegal, on the ground that regular bus commuters had been put to immense hardships since Tuesday, when the strike began.
Narayan told the court that the most important demand of the trade unions was the revision of the Dearness Allowance for pensioners every six months. He said the revision had been frozen and therefore, the State must come up with an assurance to revise the DA with immediate effect.
The AAG, on the other hand, said, the strike was unjustified, and the State had done everything to address the grievances of the employees. After hearing both sides, the Chief Justice remarked that both sides appeared to be adamant and as a consequence, it was the citizens who were bearing the brunt.
The union workers accused the state government of neglecting their demands. Apart from the signing of the 15th wage revision agreement to increase pay, they also demanded the government fill up the vacancies for bus drivers and conductors.
Workers affiliated with the major unions–Centre of Indian Trade Union (CITU), All India Trade Union Congress (/topic/all-india-trade-unioncongress) (AITUC), and Anna Thozhir Sanga Peravai (ATSP), among others are part of the strike. Earlier, Tamil Nadu Transport Minister SS Sivasankar termed the strike a ‘political move’.
