The Bodoland Transport Service (BTS) employees are on indefinite strike since the last three days affecting the commuters in different parts of the BTAD region in Assam.
Bus services have been hit adversely as no buses were plying to and from Udalguri, Sonitpur ,Guwhati, Routa etc.
The strike by employees has been launched in protest against slew of demands like regulation of service, payment in terms of salary under April 2016 government notification, to allow them to work under a signboard, to expand the infrastructure of BTS taking as a social obligation to the people.
The employees rued that though they have been rendering their services they are paid a salary to be compared with monthly stipend.
“All the workers are engaged in pay scale ranging from Rs 4,000 per month to Rs 6,500 per month,” they said.
They also alleged that the BTC Executive Member in-charge of Transport assured them about the stable formation of the bus service organization but ‘sadly nothing has come in reality till date’.
The employees stated that the BTS has been maintaining all the expenses like HSD oil, staff salary, repairing etc, from its own revenue collection.
“The BTS is facing different kinds of problems now a days to run the department smoothly due to unstable price hike of HSD oil, parts, others accessories etc because it is not possible to maintain all the expenses from its own revenue collection, they opined.
The Bodoland Transport Services was launched on September 16, 2008 with sixteen numbers of staff and four buses from ASTC.
Today it is operating 36 numbers of buses in different parts of Assam including in Guwahati, Sonitpur, Biswanath apart from the four districts of BTC catering to the needs of the commuters in remote areas.
Shockingly no one from the BTC authority including the concerned BTC executive member in charge of Transport, Jagadish Sarkar or BTC secretary in charge of BTS have visited or held talks with the agitating employees.