MUMBAI: The Maharashtra government on Monday issued a notification setting up a three-member committee for considering the demands of striking employees of the State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) on directions of the Bombay High Court even as the ongoing stir spread to 223 bus depots, affecting services and inconveniencing lakhs of passengers across the state.
A section of the MSRTC employees has not been reporting for duty since October 28 seeking a merger of the cash-strapped corporation with the state government.
Meanwhile, the state government on Monday night permitted private buses, school buses, contract carriage buses and goods carriage buses to ferry passengers, an RTO (Regional Transport Office) official said.
"To avoid inconvenience to the passengers and keep the passenger service normal during the strike period, the state government gave the permission under sub-section 3 (N) of section 66 of the Motor Vehicle Rules 1988. The permission will automatically stand cancelled once the strike is called off," he said.
Earlier in the day, the high court had directed the state government to set up a special committee to address the issues raised by MSRTC staffers and issue a government resolution (GR) by this evening for setting up the special panel.
As per the GR, the special committee will be headed by the Maharashtra chief secretary for considering the demands of MSRTC employees to give them the status of state government employees.
The other two members of the panel will be the additional chief secretary (Finance) and the additional chief secretary (Transport).
The committee would listen to the say of all the 28 labour unions and employees and submit its feedback and recommendations to the chief minister, the GR said, adding that MSRTC vice-chairman and managing director will work as a coordinator for this committee, but won't participate in the decision-making process.
After considering the recommendations of the committee, the chief minister would submit the report about the opinion or stand in the high court.
The GR mentioned a deadline of 12 weeks for completing the process and asked the coordinator to update the high court about the progress every fortnight.
On Monday, a vacation bench of Justices S J Kathawalla and S P Tavade, while hearing a plea filed by the MSRTC against the strike, noted that though in its earlier orders it had directed the workers to resume their duties, an attempt is now being made to amicably resolve the issue by requesting the state government to sympathetically consider the demand of the MSRTC workers.
Maharashtra Transport Minister Anil Parab last week said a discussion on the demand for the merger of the MSRTC with the state government and other issues related to the loss-making corporation will take place after Diwali.
On Monday morning, bus operations at 223 depots of the MSRTC remained shut due to the strike of employees compared to 120 depots on Sunday, officials said.
Before Sunday, around 30 depots were affected because of the stir.
In the MSRTC's Mumbai region, 14 of the 45 depots were operational on Monday, while in the Pune region, eight of the 55 depots were functioning, an official said.
With the Diwali festivities just concluding, lakhs of passengers were now facing hardships and they were dependent on private buses for travelling to their destinations after the holidays.
The MSRTC is one of the biggest state transport corporations in the country with a fleet of more than 16,000 buses and around 93,000 employees, including drivers and conductors.
The corporation used to ferry over 65 lakh passengers daily before the coronavirus outbreak last year.