With the industrial court declaring the MSRTC strike illegal, the transport corporation has begun counselling its agitating staff and their families to persuade them to get back to work. To keep the buses going, it has started engaging retired staffers, home guards and private drivers.

Till last week, less than 26,500 of MSRTC’s 96,000 employees had resumed, keeping just 125 of the 250 depots running, that too partially. The strike by the employees of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation is nearing 100 days.