PANAJI
Students across Goa face hardships getting to school as drivers and attendants of the Balrath buses striked on Monday, demanding higher emoluments and better service conditions.
Over 600 Balrath employees staged a dharna squatting at the Azad Maidan in the capital city on day one of their indefinite strike in pursuit of their demand for higher pay and job security.
The drivers and attendants are agitating under the banner of the Balrath Employees Association which has rejected the State government’s decision to hike their monthly emoluments by Rs 1,000 for drivers and Rs 500 for the attendants/cleaners.
They are demanding that drivers be paid Rs 20,000 which is double of what they were being paid earlier. For the attendants/cleaners, the Association has been demanding a nearly three times increase to Rs 14,500 monthly.
On job security, the agitating Balrath employees are demanding that their services be regularised on completion of five years continuous service.
Meanwhile, several school managements had informed students in advance that their school bus services will not ply from Monday enabling parents to make alternate transport arrangements.
