KOCHI: Having entered the fifth day, the private bus operators’ indefinite strike raising various demands was called off on Tuesday following Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s assurance their demands would be looked into later.
When the leaders of the private bus operators’ unions met the Chief Minister and Transport Minister A K Saseendran on Tuesday morning, Pinarayi bluntly told them as the Cabinet had already decided on the bus fare hike, he could not effect any change in it for the time being. He told the bus operators he was aware of the problems existing in the private bus sector. The bus operators main demand was to raise the minimum charge from `8 to `10 and the students’ concession minimum charge to `2, and to 25 per cent of the actual charge from the current rate of 14 per cent.
Since students formed a major share of passengers, they wanted concession fares to be hiked. But it was not acceptable to the government. They also wanted the government to withdraw the increased road tax and insurance.
Kerala State Private Bus Operators Federation (KSPBOF) general secretary Lawrence Babu told Express they had little option but to call off the strike as the Chief Minister was adamant on his stand. “The Chief Minister said he could not make any change in the cabinet decision that students’ fare could not be hiked. He assured us that he would consider our demands at a later stage. As the Chief Minister had to leave for another function, his meeting with us didn’t last long,” he said.
He pointed out that a majority of the 13,000 private buses were running at a loss as there was a huge increase in road tax and insurance, the latter having increased by 68 per cent in the past three years.