Since the past few months, the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) unions have been demanding that the bus drivers and conductors and other workers in the transport body should be included among the frontline workers’ batch of COVID-19 vaccine. However, the state government has not yet approved the MSRTC’s plea for immunization of its employees.
The state buses ferried all essential workers since Day 1 -- from March 23 till date, and the workers deserve to be given priority for vaccines, stated ST employee unions in its demand.
So far, 4,282 ST employees in the state have been diagnosed with coronavirus infections. Of these, 127 employees are currently undergoing treatment and 4,046 employees have returned to duty after receiving treatment, while 109 people have died. As of March 1, more than 46 employees were infected with the virus.
Even during the lockdown phase, employees of the MSRTC have risked their lives to ensure that the services are functional, especially with the local trains ferrying essential service personnel only.
Moreover, the ST buses provided free services since May for the repatriation of students, labourers, employees and commuters who are stranded across the state due to the lockdown.
As a result, the transport body workers’ union has expressed its displeasure for not according the ST conductors and drivers in the priority list.
BEST unions have also demanded the same for the bus conductors/drives.
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