Bengaluru Metro | Employees on strike, train services suspended

Bangalore: The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation (BMRC) had temporarily suspended metro train services on Friday as employees staged a protest over alleged manhandling and arrest of two Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited officials after a scuffle with security personnel. As many as four lakh commuters were stranded when they found all stations had been closed, police said. "Train service temporally stopped," Bangalore Metro"s Twitter handle said.

The services were resumed later after negotiations with police and BMRCL officials who prevailed upon the employees to withdraw the protest, officials said. BMRCL employees were demanding the release of two of their officials arrested yesterday when they got into a scuffle with Karnataka State Industrial Security Force (KSISF) personnel deployed at a station here. The Metro employees and KSISF personnel reportedly exchanged fisticuffs and abuses over a row on security checks at Sir M Visveswaraya Central College station.

Sources said that BMRC Chief Pradeep Singh Kharola had instructed some station staffs to use minimum electricity and stop uses of lifts and escalators where less footfalls. Accordingly, the KSISF personnel deployed at various metro stations stopped uses of automatic security scanners and started manual security checking. A BMRC employee found that the KSISF allowing some commuters without proper checking then he told the deployed security personnel to check the commuters properly to ensure security of metro property as well as other commuters. Despite of hearing and following his advice the security personnel started beating him on the spot. A video of this incident was also made viral through various means of social media like WhatsApp, Facebook etc. The victim has reported the incident to higher authorities including his colleagues but initially no action was taken. Then the employees started the protest against the management and KSISF, and demanding appropriate action against the guilty KSISF staffs.

About 35 metro staff allegedly retaliated, after which six employees were arrested. Four of them have been released but the metro staff is demanding that the remaining two be let off. Two constables of the Karnataka State Industrial Security Forces were also arrested on the complaint of a Metro staffer.

The employees resorted to protests after talks between KSISF and Namma Metro officials to resolve the matter failed. The services have been resumed after negotiations with the workers who were on strike was successful.