Over 100 buses damaged by protesters across Karnataka amidst strike

Bengaluru/Mangaluru, Jul 25: Protestors damaged over 100 buses across Karnataka on Monday the first day of the strike called by employees of all four transport corporations in the state: KSRTC, BMTC, NEKRTC and NWKRTC.

49 KSRTC buses, 4 BMTC buses, 12 NWKRTC and 27 NEKRTC buses were damaged as of 9 am this morning, causing a loss of Rs 8,97,300 for all corporations. Later more buses were damaged.

In view of the violence and damage to public property, the police have deployed over 3000 police men to ensure law and order and maintain peace in the state.

Employees of transport corporations are on an indefinite protest demanding a 30% increase in DA given to them, along with about 44 other demands, including intercorporation transfers, creches of the children of corporation employees, rest room for ladies in all depots and so on.

The traffic police, taking note of complaints of auto drivers fleecing commuters by taking advantage of the opportunity and charging extra, have promised action if passengers can bring this to the attention of the police.

South Western Railway has planned to halt all passenger and express trains at Byappanahalli, Carmelaram, Whitefield and Channasandra stations to benefit citizens in the wake of transport strike on Monday, according to a statement from the south western railways.

With barely any buses on the streets, Namma Metro pitched in by increasing the frequency of trains to five minutes.

Both employees union and the management including the state government are firm on their respective stands with the transport corporations as well as the management saying that increasing the wages of workers will result in losses for the corporations.