Employees of the TNSTC with the backing of retired hands began a 48-hour in-house agitation across district headquarters in Tamil Nadu today. They have said that buses will be off the roads from Saturday if their demands, which include introduction of new buses, are not considered by the Government.

At district headquarters here on Mettupalayam Road, more than 2,500 employees are participating in the agitation which will come to a close at 6pm tomorrow.

The protesters are demanding that the State Government introduce new buses and take out obsolete ones.

Labour Progressive Union Coimbatore Zonal president K Periaswami said, “The State Government has to offer 3,500 new buses every year, but in the past six years only less than 7,000 new buses were introduced. A Government bus has a life time of only six years, but most buses plying today are over six years and pose a threat to people.”

The corporation was incurring a loss of Rs 150 crore a month and the State Government needed to take timely action.

The protesters alleged that the Corporation was using salary and pension amount to run the affairs. They wanted pending salary amount of about Rs 7,000 crore to be disbursed immediately and pension should be given on the first of every month. Also employees who joined after 2003 should be included in old pension scheme.