A short circuit led to a major fire in an Assam State Transport Corporation (ASTC) bus in Tinsukia. Fire brigade reached the spot soon and brought the situation under control. 

The passenger bus burst into flames when it was parked at a depot in Assam’s Tinsukia district on Thursday morning, according to a report by Pratidin Time. The bus was supposed to travel to Tezpur from this depot and no passengers had boarded it yet. Nobody was injured in the incident, the Assam-based news channel reported.

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Notably, the fire has come at a time when a number of laid off employees of the ASTC have staged protests. The announcement to lay off 771 employees from ASTC came on Tuesday. Moreover, the Transport Commission claimed in a notification that 2,274 employees were recruited without following the due process during the tenures of Anand Prakash Tiwari and Khagendra Nath Chetia as ASTC's Managing Director.

After the announcement of the decision on Tuesday, a number of the affected employees gathered outside the ASTC office in Guwahati's Paltanbazaar area on Wednesday afternoon to demand answers from the General Secretary of the State Transport Employees Union for their surprise dismissal from jobs. 

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The situation had soon escalated as the agitated employees demanded that the decision to lay off the employees be lifted immediately. Police from Paltanbazaar had to be called to bring the situation under control.

Authorities are reportedly investigating to find the real reason behind this fire. The bus was registered under the number ‘AS12 BC 9447', according to media reports.

 

(With agency inputs)


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