Western regions worst hit by MTC flash strike; autorickshaw drivers make a killing by hiking fares

It was chaos in the city on Monday morning, as employees of the MTC went on a flash strike, protesting against the part payment of their salaries. Since the strike was held without notice, people set out as usual for bus stops and termini, only to find that no bus was being operated.

A bus conductor at the Ayanavaram bus depot, where hundreds of passengers were seen waiting at 11 a.m., said they refused to ply buses as only 65% of net pay was credited.

M. Surendran, a resident of Keelkattalai, said he had to wait for over an hour to board the M1 bus (Keelkattalai to Thiruvanmiyur) at the Keelkattalai bus terminus.

During the morning peak hour, share autos and small vans were also limited, as they were transporting children to schools.

The strike by the MTC staff gave an opportunity for share autos and autorickshaws to charge exorbitantly. T. Chandran, a resident of Anna Nagar West Extension, said share autos that charged ₹25 to reach Nungambakkam asked for ₹40, and even if they were willing to pay, space was not available.

While MTC officials claimed that buses were not operated only from four or five depots out of the 34 bus depots in the city, buses were not operated from over 10. Public transport operations were fully paralysed on the western section of Avadi, Ambattur, Poonamallee, and Koyambedu.

Unsatisfactory response

K. Natarajan, leader of the Labour Protection Front affiliated to the DMK, said normally salary would be disbursed early morning on the first day of every month, but as salary did not get credited, the MTC staff were agitated. He said the MTC management did not respond properly when the issue was taken to them on Sunday.

Bus operations got normalised after over six hours, and eased late evening.