Roadways Employees’ Protest Against Kilometer Scheme Turns Violent

Passengers across Panjab were left stranded on 28 Nov after contractual employees of Punjab Roadways and the PEPSU Road Transport Corporation (PRTC) went on strike after police picked up several union leaders on 27–28 Nov. The unions had earlier announced a protest against the opening of tenders under the controversial Kilometer Scheme (KS). KS is a model under which the state transport undertakings PRTC, Punjab Roadways contract out bus operations to private operators: a private person supplies the bus, hires the driver, and handles maintenance. The state issues the route permit, assigns the route, provides (in many cases) the conductor and fuel, and pays the private operator a fixed amount per kilometer travelled. KS was first introduced in Panjab in 1998. Currently, 217 buses are already running under the PRTC KS on a six-year contract. Nearly 2.3K buses are under the state government, and 1.6K employees are on regular rolls. 7.5K employees are on contract and outsourced collectively, said union members. ‘The number of regular employees has been declining over the years, as new hires are mostly contract staff,’ said Yudh Singh, state general secretary of Punjab Roadways and PRTC Contract Staff Union. The PRTC and Punjab Roadways contractual employees say the opening of tenders would threaten their jobs and pave the way for privatisation. The situation at the Sangrur bus stand turned tense as employees were standing on top of a bus with petrol cans. A Station House Officer’s uniform accidentally caught fire and sustained burn injuries and is undergoing treatment at the Sangrur civil hospital. The standoff intensified after the clashes between employees and police; Panjab government terminated the employment of 152 employees and issued notices to several others. The protesters demand the release of arrested and detained employees, and reinstatement of those suspended and dismissed. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann said that the Panjab government will construct 44,920 km of roads in the state. The government, also, cleared a project to repair and upgrade more than 18K km of link and main roads by March 2026 (earlier coverage).