Srinagar, Jan 23 (KNS): The commuters across the Valley were left to face tremendous hardships, with the 72-hour strike call by transporters.
All the public transport including Tata Sumo’s, mini buses, Auto-rickshaw’s, Taxi’s and other passenger transporters suspended their work from today in Valley, which resulted in the immense hardships to the commuters here.
A large number of students, employees and others were seen urging the private transporters to ferry them while large number of commuters were seen walking by foot to reach to their destinations as no public transport was today available on roads to ferry them.
Talking to KNS, Muhammad Rizwan, a student said, “Due to the no public transport on roads, I walked at least 9 kilometer by foot to reach my tuition point at Parraypora. There is no public transport on roads today thereby resulted in immense hardships to the commuters.”
He said that the government must take immediate steps regarding the demands of transporters so that the commuters who are facing tough times could feel a sigh of relief.
Ali Muhammad, one of the commuters whose father was ill said, “My father’s health got deteriorating today I went outside to call an auto-rickshaw so that we can bring him to hospital but unfortunately all the transporters are on strike thereby I face severe inconvenience to take my father to the hospital for treatment.Click Here To Follow Our WhatsApp Channel”
Attendance in government offices, private offices, banks and businesses was thin.
Witnesses said that the representatives of transport operators were seen enforcing the strike here and elsewhere by stopping the few vehicles on the roads.
Pertinently, the transporters have called for a strike to press for their demands including withdrawal of yearly passenger welfare fund and rollback of hike in fitness fees and fees for other renewal of documents.
Transporters accuse the government of sidelining their “genuine” demands.
However, reports said that representatives of transport operators had said in Jammu on Sunday that they had deferred the 72-hour strike beginning on Monday as they were meeting Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti to sort out the issue.
It was because of this scheduled meeting that the transport operators in Jammu continued their services today. (KNS)