The top governing body of private bus owners in Odisha has issued a strong warning of an "indefinite" strike starting from Friday, coinciding with the commencement of the Durga Puja festivities. Their primary concern revolves around the allocation of routes.
The strike, as confirmed by Debendra Sahu, the general secretary of the Odisha Private Bus Owners' Association, will commence at 6 am on Friday and persist for an indefinite duration.
During a meeting on October 9, the state government assured that buses operating under the Location Accessible Multimodal Initiative (LAccMI) would not traverse from the blocks to the districts. Regrettably, as asserted by Sahu, this commitment has not been honoured.
Earlier this month, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik launched an affordable bus service under LaccMI with the aim of connecting all gram panchayats with district headquarters and the state capital. However, Sahu insists that government officials pledged during the meeting that buses under this initiative would not extend their routes beyond the blocks.
“We were told that LAccMi buses will operate only from panchayats to blocks and not to district headquarters. Therefore, we had put our strike scheduled on October 10 on hold. Unfortunately, the Odisha government-operated LAccMi buses are still plying to the districts. The administration has not kept its word,” he alleged.
It is expected that approximately 1,000 buses will operate in rural areas under this scheme, with a budget allocation of Rs 3,178 crore.
The state government has arranged a meeting on Thursday to address the issue in preparation for the upcoming festival days.
Odisha's road transportation heavily relies on private bus services, with around 14,000 private buses in operation, in contrast to only 2,000 government-owned buses, according to transport department sources.
