BHUBANESWAR: State Transport Minister Tukuni Sahu’s assurances to the private bus operators that their demands will be resolved have failed to break the impasse as the latter have refused to budge from their stance. The All Odisha Private Bus Owner’s Association, after a meeting with the minister on Thursday, said it will take a decision on resuming the strike on October 30 as the discussion with the state government remained inconclusive.
The association has been opposing recently launched state-run buses on certain routes under the Location Accessible Multimodal Initiative (LAccMI) and Mo Bus schemes. General secretary of the association Debendra Sahoo said the strike has been put on hold till October 31 but not called off.
“The minister has assured us to compensate for the loss the private buses will incur due to the plying of LAccMI and Mo buses. She has asked us to give in writing the loss amount. The bus owners will take a call on whether to go for a strike again or not at our general body meeting on Monday,” he said.
Sahu, on the other hand, kept mum on the issue. Talking to media persons after the meeting, she said, that LAccMI is a revolutionary and historic initiative aimed at providing public transport at the doorsteps of rural people.
“It cannot be discontinued. In the first phase, the initiative has been launched in areas where there is no private bus service. The bus owners are opposing LAccMI buses on the routes where private buses are operating. They have been asked to submit a written memorandum to the government by October 30. There will be no bus strike in the state for now,” the minister said.
The government is introducing LAccMI in two phases providing bus communication from panchayat to block and block to district headquarters level. The association has been demanding not to introduce the buses from the block level to district headquarters or expand the service area of Mo Bus.
“The government agreed not to expand the service of Mo Bus beyond city limits. But there was no assurance on LAccMI. We were forced to launch an indefinite strike on October 20 as buses operated up to the district headquarters in Malkangiri instead of block headquarters,” Sahoo said.