Employees of the Rajasthan State Roadways Transport Corporation (RSRTC) went on a surprise strike. Around 22,000 employees of Roadways decided to do a sudden boycott of work from early Thursday morning. This brought the 4,000 strong fleet buses at a standstill at various different locations in the Rajasthan state.
This unannounced strike by the Rajasthan Roadways employees also left passengers mid-way.
The reason behind this strike was to protest against some private bus owners of the Lok Parivahan Sewa, who attempted to forcefully enter the Sindhi Camp bus depot. The private bus owners who entered Sindhi Camp on early Thursday morning resulted in a clash between them and the Rajasthan Roadways employees. There has been a dispute between the two since the government allowed the newly launched private Lok Parivahan Sewa buses to use the depots and bus stand of Rajasthan Roadways.
The owners of the Lok Parivahan Sewa approached High Court and had received an order in their favour by the court. The court also directed the government to provide Roadways facilities to be used by the Lok Parivahan Sewa buses as per agreement entered into by the government.
But the Roadways employees are not ready for it.
However, the employees called off their strike after talks with the transport minister. They called off the strike when the government committed to find a solution to the matter related to Rajasthan Lok Parivahan Sewa. The government agreed to give arrears of retired RSRTC employees, purchase new buses for RSRTC and fill vacant posts.