Delhi Commuters Face Tough Time on Day Two of Strike

"We tried our best to avoid the strike, as it will bring in lot of inconvenience to the public. But the government made us go for the strike, as they denied our genuine demands. We apologise to the public for the inconvenience. But to achieve something, one has to bear certain inconvenience," P. Jayaraju, secretary, Indian Trade Union Congress (INTUC) told IANS.

According to the union leaders, the first day of the strike (Wednesday) saw participation from several sectors including banking, public sector defence units, industry, hotels, financial institutions and taxi and auto drivers and the same would continue today (Thursday).

A DTC official said: "The Delhi government is plying around 5,117 DTC buses, in addition to 6,153 RTV (rural transport vehicles) and 1,870 mini-buses, to facilitate the public."

Delhi Metro officials said they have deployed additional staff at stations across the city to manage the surging crowds besides putting on standby some extra trains on each line.

"Two or three extra trains on each line are on stand-by to manage the crowds... additional tokens are also kept," the metro official said.

Metro ridership at 8 p.m. Wednesday was 16.29 lakh while Tuesday it was 15.83 lakh.

The two-day strike has been called jointly by the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), Indian Trade Union Congress (INTUC), All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS), Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), All India United Trade Union Centre (AIUTUC) and other such central organisations.