BENGALURU: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) workers, led by state president Prithvi Reddy, staged a protest and laid siege to the Vidhana Soudha on Wednesday demanding the resignation of Minister Sriramulu over the alleged suicide of transport employees.
Prior to the protest, Prithvi Reddy met Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and requested him to drop “inefficient” Transport Minister B Sriramulu from the cabinet and give the transport ministry to deserving people.
Speaking to the media, Prithvi Reddy said, “More than 35 transport employees died by suicide during the BJP government’s tenure and six transport employees have died by suicide in the last 15 days. It is inhuman that even though a row of employees have died by suicide, ministers and officials do not even pay a visit to the dead and console their families.”
The government has suspended a depot manager after the Aam Aadmi Party protested against the suicides. It is disheartening to know that the transport minister has not even provided adequate compensation to the victims,” Prithvi Reddy expressed his anger.
“The role of transport employees in public service is very important. It is because of them that today the common man is able to commute. But the government views them as enemies. There is no question of the Aam Aadmi Party remaining silent after seeing the injustice being done to the transport employees. The government should soon sack Sriramulu from the cabinet, give compensation to the families of the affected transport employees and form an expert committee to formulate a transport policy that will protect the interest of the transport employees,” Prithvi Reddy demanded.
Aam Aadmi Party’s Bangalore city president Mohan Dasari said, “Many of the transport employees who committed suicide have left behind suicide notes. They have clearly blamed harassment in the department for their death. Honest employees are facing mental harassment due to the irregularities of ministers and top officials.
In 2020 and 2021, more than 110 transport employees died due to Covid-19. Though the state government had announced a compensation of Rs 30 lakh to the families of the deceased, only seven families have received the compensation so far. “It is evident that Transport Minister Sriramulu has been inefficient in providing Covid compensation to the families of deceased employees,” he remarked.
AAP leaders Vijay Sharma, Sanchit Sawhani, B T Naganna, Jagadish V Sadam, Darshan Jain, Suresh Rathod, Jagadish Chandra, Channappa Gowda Nellore, Kushala Swamy, Usha Mohan and hundreds of other leaders and activists participated in the protest. (ANI)