Mumbai Nov 26 PTI Even as Maharashtra Transport Minister Anil Parab had given an ultimatum to the employees of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation MSRTC who have been on a strike over their demands to rejoin duty on Friday only a section of workers resumed work this morning officials said The MSRTC is compiling information about how many workers resumed duty across the state on Friday they said Till 10 am the transport body operated only 151 buses across the state majority of them in Sangli and Raigad divisions Of these buses 116 were ordinary ones while the remaining were air-conditioned Shivneri and Shivshahi buses a spokesperson of the MSRTC said The MSRTC workers have been on a strike since October 28 demanding a merger of the cash-strapped corporation with the state government which will give them the status of state government employees and better salaries In a bid to end the strike Parab had on Wednesday declared a hike of Rs 2500 to Rs 5000 in the basic salaries for employees and had also given a 24-hour deadline to the employees to return to duty On Thursday Parab had also warned that strict action would be taken against the employees if they fail to resume work on Friday However most of the employees are adamant on the merger demand and they are firm on going ahead with the strike for it MSRTC is one of the biggest public transport bodies in the county with a fleet of around 16000 buses and around 93000 employees The loss-making corporation used to ferry around 65 lakh passengers before the pandemic According to the corporation over 9700 employees had joined duty and it had operated over 500 buses across the state on Thursday Since November 9 it was the highest number of employees who reported for duty as well as the daily bus services operated PTI KK NP NP