They are playing politics...: CITU State president A Soundararajan slams Tamil Nadu govt

CHENNAI: As the transport union indefinite bus in Tamil Nadu continued for the second day, Centre of Indian Trade Union (CITU) State president A Soundararajan on Wednesday claimed that the state government is "playing politics."

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.

"They are playing politics in support of their party. We are doing the same thing we did earlier. Where is the politics? He is speaking this only to divert the people," the CITU State President told ANI on Wednesday.

Reacting to Tamil Nadu Transport Minister SS Sivasankar's remark that the strike is a 'political move', Soundararajan said that then why is he (the transport minister) asking us to return to duty?

"If he (the transport minister) says that many buses are plying, then why is he calling us for talks and asking us to return to duty?" he added.

When asked about the next step of the union, he said that what we'll do tomorrow will be decided later. Additionally, their demands also included releasing the dearness allowance (DA) of Rs 6,000 per month for the retired workers, which has been on hold for the last eight years.

Meanwhile, due to the strike of the workers, the number of buses in Rameswaram on Wednesday has reduced by less than 50 percent compared to yesterday. Workers affiliated with the major unions--Centre of Indian Trade Union (CITU), All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), and Anna Thozhir Sanga Peravai (ATSP), among others--are part of the strike.

The DMK-affiliated Labour Progressive Federation (LPF) Union has said this strike is politically motivated by AIADMK and requested all workers to ply the buses. "LPF also has the same demands.

The DMK government is fulfilling each demand one by one. By keeping the goodwill of the public in mind and also to break the AIADMK political motivation, it is being requested to run all the buses normally," a statement from LPF Secretary and MP Shanmugam read.