The commute of lakhs of people in Bengaluru will be affected on Monday as no consensus was achieved between the Transport Department and Federation of Karnataka State Private Transport Association over the latter’s call for a Bengaluru bandh. With autorickshaws, cabs, airport taxis and private buses deciding to not get on the roads, commuters would have to entirely depend on public transport such as Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) and Namma Metro.
With even private school vans/buses participating in the bandh, parents are worried about the commute of their children to and from schools. While the government has not declared a holiday, some private schools have declared holiday by themselves while a few others have opted for online classes only for Monday. Maharani Cluster University has postponed the exam scheduled on Monday due to the strike.
Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy said to ensure that there is no inconvenience to the public, he has instructed the BMTC to run 500 extra schedules (4,000 trips) from major bus stations. “Those who need to go to the hospitals, those who need to go to offices, those coming from other places and the ones who would want to go to airports and railway stations should not face issues and we have accordingly made arrangements.”
BMTC also announced that the additional trips will operate from bus stations such as Kempegowda bus stand, K.R. Market and Shivajinagar bus stands to Kadugodi, Sarjapur, Attibele, Anekal, Bannerghatta/Jigani, Harohalli, Bidadi, Tavarekere, Nelamangala, Hesaraghatta, Doddabalapur, Devanahalli, Bagalur, Channasandra, Hoskote and Outer Circle. Further, the BMTC officers/staff and Sarathi patrol forces will be deployed on major roads, bus stands and junctions of the city and the traffic will be monitored. The officials said that additional trips will be operated in case of demand.
The BMTC will also be running 100 additional trips to the airport as airport taxis will also not be available on Monday. The Minister said that the police were also on alert to prevent any untoward incidents.
“While close to 10 lakh vehicles will be off road, more than 10,000 members from across Bengaluru will gather at 10 a.m. for a protest march from Sangolli Rayanna Circle to Freedom Park. We would like to apologise to the public for the inconvenience that would be caused to them, but they should know that the State government is wholly responsible for this strike,” said S. Nataraj Sharma, president of the federation.
Mr. Sharma added that unless their demands are met by the government, autorickshaws in Bengaluru will tie black flags to their vehicles as a sign of protest from Tuesday. He also said that the protest will be taken to the State-level if further talks with the government fail.
C.N. Srinivasan of Auto Rickshaw Drivers’ Union (ARDU) said that except a pro-government group, all other autorickshaw drivers will extend their support to the strike.
The federation consists of 32 transport unions, which have placed 28 demands in front of the State government. Multiple rounds of talks between the government and the federation, including a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, failed to yield any results, said the federation members.
Mr. Reddy alleged that there could be a political motive behind the call for a bandh. “The federation members did not even attend the meeting chaired by the CM. Fulfilling all their demands would require around ₹5,000 crore and I have already made it clear to them about which ones could be met and which could not. We cannot do anything more than this if they have made up their minds,” he said.
