No solution yet, transport staff strike looks certain

In such a scenario, transport department officials have requested representatives of various unions to hold another round of talks and Transport Minister MR Vijayabaskar is expected to broker the disgruntlement by agreeing to the demands put forth by transport employees on Thursday.

Transport employees have been demanding the government to disburse Rs 2,500 crore immediately for the payment of outstanding dues and to allot more funds for procuring 8,000 buses, besides insisting the transport officials to allot amounts to mete out the daily loss of Rs 5 crore. 

Arumugam Nainar, general secretary of Tamil Nadu State Transport Employees Federation (TNSTEF), told DTNext, “If the government remains passive, we will, as announced earlier, go on strike from May 15. The state labour department has also called the transport unions for talks on May 12.” 

R Mutharasan, state secretary, CPI, in a statement, hit out at Transport Minister M R Vijayabaskar, saying that he should have come forward to hold talks and solve the issues. 

“Public transport is widely used by all sections of people in the state. The Chief Minister and Transport Minister should take correct decisions and ensure that demands of such transport employees are met with,” he said and blamed transport administration for procuring a huge amount in the name of administrative expenditure.

Stating that if the transport employees go on strike, Mutharasan said that the public would be most affected and added that the state government should immediately find a lasting solution to the issue.