Transport strike: KSRTC union leader Kodihalli Chandrashekhar held, freed in Belagavi

BELAGAVI: The police took farmer leader and honorary president of KSRTC employees’ union Kodihalli Chandrashekhar into custody on Saturday and later released him. The police said that he had organised farmers and KSRTC employees meeting at Suvarna Garden near Suvarna Vidhana Soudha in Belagavi on Saturday.

Though permission was not given, he went ahead with the meeting with farmers and KSRTC employees to discuss transport employees problems, rising fertiliser prices and supporting the Delhi farmers’ protest against farm bills. The police personnel took him into custody from his room in a hotel near Rani Channama Circle and released him out of the Belagavi Lok Sabha constituency boundary limits. 

Earlier, he said, “The government’s methods to suppress agitations is not right. Is this government in a hurry to privatise the public transport system by terminating the employees?” Taking part in the agitation of transport employees here on Saturday, he said, “People are suffering because bus services have stopped. The government should take a quick decision with the concern of employees in mind. The government should solve problems, instead of creating them.”

He said, ‘The continuation of the strike depends on the decision of the government. Transport Minister Laxman Savadi had earlier agreed to solve employees’ problems, but did not honour the commitment. The government is now trying to beat down the employees. The government is meting out step-motherly treatment to transport employees.”