Passengers continued to bear the brunt as the KSRTC staff strike entered third day on Sunday.
None of the buses from rural and urban division depots hit the road on Sunday with the striking staff sticking to their demands and continuing the agitation giving no heed to the appeals from the government for calling off the strike for the sake of passengers.
Both the mofussil bus stand and the city bus stand wore a deserted look with the bus services coming to a grinding halt from the indefinite strike even as some passengers were seen waiting for buses of other States which are plying normally. The number of passengers visiting the bus stand has decreased substantially compared to the last two days with no sign of the strike being called off.
More private buses have hit the road in view of the strike. But majority of passengers complained that they were charging more than the usual fare taking advantage of the strike. The private buses were seeing a lot of rush and ferrying passengers to Bengaluru, Mandya, Nanjangud, T. Narsipur and other places.
Taxis and autorickshaws were also charging inordinately as the people dependent on the public transport have no option but to accept their terms and pay as they demanded to reach their destinations. With a lot of weddings and other functions lined up, the strike has put the public to serious inconvenience. Some autorickshaws, which were plying within the city, were ferrying passengers to nearby villages and towns.
Some striking staff staged a dharna in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office on Sunday and stated they won’t be calling off the strike unless their demands, mainly that they be considered as government employees, are met.
Meanwhile, the KSRTC which was planning to resume Volvo bus services between the city bus stand (CBS) and Mysore airport has to put off the re-launch in view of the strike.
The service which was launched before COVID-19, was discontinued after the pandemic. There was a demand for launching the AC bus services after more number of flights operated from Mysuru under UDAN.
The KSRTC had planned to operate the buses as per the arrival and departure of the flights and scheduled the trips availing the time table from the airport authorities.
“Once the normal bus services are resumed, the services to the airport will be restarted with the same number of stops and the fare when it was launched early this year,” a KSRTC official said.
The bus starts from CBS, will pass through mofussil bus stand, JP Palace Hotel, Ginger Hotel, Radisson Blue Hotel, and Sri Ganapathy Sachchidananda Ashram and reach the airport on Mysuru-Ooty Highway. The fare from the airport to the CBS is ₹100.