Karnataka bus strike called off

Bangalore  :  The two-day old strike by staff of the state-run bus services in Karnataka was called off late Friday bringing relief to the people, transport minister R. Ashoka said.

Normal bus service across the state would resume Saturday, Ashoka told reporters after over five hours of talks with striking employees’ leaders.

Leaders of the around 110,000 staff of state road transport corporation agreed to end their “indefinite strike” following assurance by the government to consider their demands including wage revision, H. V. Anantha Subba Rao, a spokesperson for the five unions that organized the strike, said.

The strike had crippled bus services leaving tens of thousands of people stranded across the state.

State capital Bangalore was worst hit as 6,000 buses that daily make 80,000 trips in the city off the roads since Thursday morning.

Apart from wage hike, other demands included end to harassment of drivers, conductors and lower rung staff by seniors and measures to check corruption in the road transport corporation.