Ludhiana, Aug. 4 -- Hundreds of commuters were left stranded and forced to shell out extra money for private transport as the first day of the three-day strike called by contractual employees of PUNBUS and the Punjab Road Transport Corporation (PRTC) disrupted bus services across Ludhiana on Monday. Long queues, overcrowded buses and prolonged waiting times were witnessed at the ISBT.

The strike, called from August 3 to August 5 by employees' unions, is aimed at pressing the state government to regularise contractual workers, implement the Punjab and Haryana high court's directions on equal pay for equal work, and withdraw a criminal case registered against a PRTC employee from the Sangrur depot during a protest against the kilometre sch...