MUMBAI, SEPT 29: An estimated 16,500 buses of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation will go off the roads any moment from now following the unanimous decision of 1.15 lakh employees to strike work because of the alliance Government's failure to implement the revised pay scales.``All the unions have given a joint call for indefinite strike. No buses will ply as we feel that the alliance government has betrayed us,'' Union Secretary Dilip Tuskan said, while Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde said his government will certainly hold fresh discussion with the striking workers.Significantly, though the recognised unions have served a notice of indefinite strike, there was no discussion between the management and the workers owing to the absence of MSRTC Managing Director Ujwal Uke, who is currently in West Bengal on election duty. ``We are facing a piquant situation, since Uke is away in West Bengal. Even MSRTC Chairman and BJP leader Girish Bapat are not in town,'' a senior MSRTC officialsaid.Cutting across party affiliations, all 14 unions have condemned the State Government for its complete failure to implement the revised pay scales for the 1.15 lakh employees. As per the agreement between unions and MSRTC, wage agreement is to be signed every three years. The last agreement was signed on April 1, 1996.Subsequently, when there was no response from the Government, the Joint Action Committee of Trade Unions had given the Government and the MSRTC a notice on April 19. Following intervention of Chief Minister Narayan Rane, an agreement was reached between unions and MSRTC. While the hike was of Rs 72 crore, it was decided to implement the revised pay scales from September.``When the pay slips for October were issued on Tuesday, we were shocked and surprised as there was no revision in salary structure. Therefore, now we have launched hunger strike at all the divisional headquarters and an indefinite strike,'' Tuskan added.A senior official said that following a fresh strike notice,Chief Minister Rane had convened a meeting of the union leaders and management on September 27. However, without assigning any reasons, the meeting was cancelled.
