THE stir-hit Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) on Sunday suspended 93 staffers, taking the total number of employees who have faced this action so far to 6,497, while the services of 1,525 daily wage workers were terminated. An MSRTC spokesperson said operations resumed at 50 out of 250 bus depots in the State, comprising 20 depots in Mumbai, 22 in Pune, three each in Aurangabad and Nashik and two in Nagpur. He added that, as on Sunday evening, not a single depot out of the 33 located in Amravati division of the undertaking was functional. The official said 1,108 buses hit the streets, including 49 ‘Shivneri’ and 149 ‘Shivshahi’ ones. Of the undertaking’s 92,266 staffers, a total of 18,375 were present on duty on Sunday, he said.

 

MSRTC officials said over 50 cases have been filed with the police since the stir began, including 31 pertaining to damage to buses. They said 13 of these cases were lodged on Saturday, while two complaints had been submitted to the police as on 7 pm on Sunday. In the first incident, a suspended driver was booked for damaging a window of a bus, while in the second incident, two unidentified people broke the windshield of a bus plying between Asti and Arvi, they informed. Staffers of the loss-making MSRTC have been agitating since October 28 demanding merger with the state Government, which will give them higher salaries and greater job security.