Sirsa, October 18: Police personnel in Haryana were seen driving the State Roadways buses as employees are on a strike since Tuesday. The protesting employees have called a strike against privatisation of the state's transport system.  According to a tweet by ANI, the police personnel said, commuters should not face any inconvenience amid the ongoing strike. "25 personnel deputed to drive buses on local routes so that there's no inconvenience is caused to the public", a police personnel said.

The strike by the Haryana Roadways Employees' against the state government's decision to introduce 700 private buses continued for the third day on Thursday. During the protest, most of the buses remained off roads causing inconvenience to commuters. On Wednesday, during a meeting of Haryana Roadways Workers Joint Action Committee in Kaithal, the transport employees decided to extend their strike by another two days. Haryana Roadways Strike: Employees Begin 2-Day Protest, Road Transport Hit.

Roadways Workers Union leader Sarbat Singh Punia, said if the government order for the introduction of 700 private buses was not cancelled and cases against the employees registered during the strike were not taken back, then the stir period would be further extended.

The union leaders claimed that at least 3,800 buses out of a fleet of 4,100 remained off roads during the strike. Meanwhile, the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) also took a dig at the Khattar government on the roadways' strike issue.  In view of the commuters' woes, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Wednesday ordered the suspension of all employees and officers participating in the protest, an official statement said.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 18, 2018 09:02 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).