More than one thousand staff members of around 250 buses operating from Dhanbad are on the brink of starvation due to continuation of lockdown for more than two months and resultant lack of salaries for them due to non operation of buses.

The cleaners and conductors are being compelled to work at construction sites and others are forced to take debts from moneylenders to make arrangements for food grains.

Talking to the Telegraph Online on Wednesday, Ranjit Malakar, a conductor of Jai Maa Gauri travels, said,“I used to earn around Rs 12,000 per month and somehow managed the expenses of five family members, including me, my wife and three college-going sons and had no savings at all and the sudden lockdown has deprived us our sole source of sustenance.”

“We had faced the worst days during the nine months of closure of last year from March 20, 2020 to November 7, 2020 and even after the reopening the passenger flow was very thin affecting our income so majority of drivers, conductors and cleaners are mired into debts,” said Malakar and questioned the logic of lack of permission for buses when trains for the same destinations have already been launched.

“We make rounds of the bus depot of Dhanbad at Bartand every day hoping for the resumption of permission of buses but return with despair on our faces,” said Malakar.

Shailendra Kumar Pathak, a driver of Shiv Ganga Travels said, “Having taken too much loans during the last year of lockdown we have just started paying back our debts when the second lockdown came and now we are facing difficulty in even getting food grains from the grocers due to non payment of earlier dues.”
“Majority of us, including me, have not paid the school fee of the children and repeated reminders are coming from the school to strike off the name of our children,” said Pathak.

A native resident of Bhojpur district of Bihar, Pathak who lives at a rented house in Dhanbad has not paid his house rent for the last three months.

Anjani Singh, a conductor of another bus travel agency said, “The bus operators are also not in a position to pay the salaries of the staff as the burden of the permit charges, road tax and fitness charges continue to be levied by the government even during the closure period.”

Sunil Singh, Joint secretary of Dhanbad Bus owner’s Association who is also the owner of Sunil Delux Transport which operates 20 buses between Dhanbad and different neighbouring areas of Bengal including Purulia, Asasol, Burnpur etc said,“We ourselves are in huge debt of payment of permit charges, road tax etc despite lack of any income as even before the lockdown of Jharkhand our bus operation to Bengal is lying suspended and thus we are not in position to pay our staff.”