Punjab transport staff shut bus stand till afternoon

Abohar, May 9

Punjab Roadways bus employees on Thursday closed the Abohar bus stand in protest against the alleged manipulation of the time table to give its benefits to private transporters. Not only the state-owned buses were grounded, but movement of private buses was also hit, due to which hundreds of passengers, including govt employees had to face a lot of problems.

Manpreet Singh, general secretary of Punjab Roadways and PUNBUS Contract Workers Union, said the grant of permits for vested interests was under judiciary’s scanner due to which revision of time table of the buses was in limbo. Now, the state transport management and Regional Transport Authority, Ferozepur, in alleged connivance with private transporters, had notified about 130 minutes run from Abohar to Malout and return. In the process, about 70-minutes of the roadways share goes in favour of private transporters. Even after this, the private transporters’ lobby was trying to harm state transport services, he alleged.

The union called off the strike after 1 pm when the authorities reportedly assured that compliance to the new timetable will be deferred till further decision in which the union will also be consulted.