Patiala: A strike by contract workers to protest the dismissal of the chairman of the union’s Chandigarh depot committee partially disrupted bus services of Pepsu Road Transport Corporation (PRTC) in Punjab on Wednesday.While union functionary Harkesh Kumar Vicky claimed bus operations were affected at nine depots, PRTC general manager Amanvir Singh Tiwana maintained that only one faction of employees had joined the agitation and around 60% of the fleet continued to operate. The protest follows the sacking of Gurwinder Singh Guri, the union’s Chandigarh depot chairman and an outsourced employee (conductor) over allegations of submitting fake bus stand (“adda”) fee slips and causing financial loss to the corporation. Rejecting the union’s allegation that the dismissal was arbitrary, Tiwana said the action was based on an evidence-backed inquiry. According to him, the employee was served a show-cause notice and given three days to submit his explanation. PRTC officials said the irregularities first surfaced when the cash branch noticed “adda” fee slips deposited by Guri for Rajpura, Banur and Samana bus stands carried serial numbers, stamps and formats that differed from slips submitted by other conductors operating on the same routes. A departmental audit for May allegedly found that the conductor had deposited 115 fake slips. MSID:: 132416356 413 |
