Bhubaneswar: The All Odisha Private Bus Owners’ Association announced a complete withdrawal of the proposed bus strike from December 1 following a meeting with Transport Minister Tukuni Sahu.
Association secretary Debendra Sahu informed the development after the meeting.
“We completely withdrew our proposed bus strike to be observed from December 1, We are waiting for the implementation of the government assurance. We would like to thank the government for not plying the buses in three districts as per the assurance. We hope that the government would not ply the buses from block to district headquarters in other districts,” Sahu said.
The government also expected a solution of the owners’ issues through discussion.
“Today’s discussion with the bus owners yielded fruits. They have cooperated with the government and welcomed the LAccMI (Location Accessible Multimodal Initiative) scheme. The government will discuss how their business would not get hampered,” Transport Minister Tukuni Sahu said.
The bus owners had called for an indefinite strike from December 1, protesting the government’s LAccMI scheme. They have been demanding restriction of government bus services from block to district headquarters.
On November 22, the owners staged a dharna in front of the Odisha Assembly in Bhubaneswar pressing for their demands.
The association has been opposing the government’s plan to operate buses from blocks to district headquarters under its scheme- Location Accessible Multimodal Initiative (LAccMI).
Earlier, the association had postponed its proposed strike twice, keeping in view of difficulties to be faced by passengers.
Notably, Odisha government had recently launched the LAccMI scheme intending to connect villages to the state capital. As many as 1,000 buses will be engaged under the scheme for which a budget allocation of Rs 3,178 crore has been made by the state government.
