MSRTC strike on, staff ignore State Govt.’s offer to hike pay

BJP leaders Padalkar and Khot withdraw from agitation

A day after the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government announced a pay hike in a bid to end the indefinite strike by the staffers of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC), the latter continued to remained firm on their chief demand of seeking to be treated as government employees while demanding the merger of the cash-strapped MSRTC with the State government.

Many MSRTC workers refused to budge from Mumbai’s Azad Maidan despite Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders Gopichand Padalkar and Sadabhau Khot, who have been leading the Mumbai agitation, stating they were ending the strike for the time being.

However, several MSRTC staffers, expressing their anguish at the duo’s withdrawal dubbed Mr. Khot and Mr. Padalkar’s decision as a ‘betrayal’ of the workers’ interests while accusing them of having ‘sold out’ to the State government.