The High Court of Uttarakhand has issued a bailable warrant against the Central Transport under secretary. The official has been directed to appear in the court at 10:15 AM on February 24 while the Nainital senior superintendent of police has been directed to ensure implementation of the court’s orders.

The warrant was issued by the division bench of chief justice Ramesh Ranganathan and justice RC Khulbe due to the failure of the under-secretary to appear in the court on Tuesday as directed by the high court in a public interest litigation filed by the roadways employees union.

It will be recalled that the Uttarakhand roadways employees union had filed a PIL in the high court stating that the state government was planning to impose ESMA on them which was against the rules. The union had also contended that the government was forcing them to go on strike. The government and transport corporation are neither regularising the workers nor paying them salaries regularly even while they were yet to receive their overtime dues of the past four years.

The petitioner had also stated that while the state government owes Rs 86 crore to the corporation, the Uttar Pradesh transport corporation is to clear dues to the Uttarakhand transport corporation amounting to Rs 700 crore.

 If the government and corporation get these dues cleared, the problems of the union members and the state’s transport corporation would get resolved, the union members have contended.

It is pertinent to mention here that in the past, the counsel for the centre had informed the court that the dispute between the states of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh had been resolved.

The court had sought a copy of the said agreement reached between the two states. However, the centre has not provided the said copy yet in the court.