By IANS
Lucknow : Employees of the Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corp (UPSRTC) Wednesday called off a planned strike after officials promised them that they will not be hit by privatisation.
“We decided to withdraw our call for a state-wide strike after an assurance that even partial privatisation would not affect the services of a single employee,” UPSRTC employees union spokesman Tej Bahadur Sharma told IANS.
Managers of the corporation had also pitched in with the employees at Tuesday’s demonstration that sparked a violent clash and exchange of fire with the police, leaving a dozen employees and five policemen injured.
The employees were pacified after cabinet secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh conceded their demand to remove corporation chairperson Neera Yadav and principal transport secretary Pradeep Shukla.
Desh Deepak Verma, who was earlier a successful managing director of the corporation before moving out to the central government from where he returned recently, replaced them.
Verma has also been asked to head a high-level committee to look into the process of privatisation. He visited the injured employees after a truce was signed around 1 a.m.
“We have assured the employees that their services would not be affected under any circumstances on account of the proposed partial privatisation,” Verma told IANS.
He said the proposed plan entails opening up several road routes to the private sector. The corporation enjoyed total monopoly on these routes so far.