BHUBANESHWAR: Passengers faced a lot of hardship as buses, cabs and transport vehicles remained stranded across the state on Wednesday following an indefinite 'quit steering' call by Drivers’ Ekta Mahamancha.
Long-route passengers were seen stranded at the Barmunda bus stand in the capital city, Badambadi bus stand at Cuttack and the bus bays at Angul, Balasore, Puri, Berhampur, Rourkela, Sambalpur and other district headquarters since early morning.
Some of the passengers said they came out for their travel destination following assurance from the bus owners' association that there will be no disruption in private bus services. But most of the private buses are off the roads due to the strike, they said.
Even as the bus owners' association had assured that private buses will ply as usual if the police provides them protection, bus services were affected as drivers under the federation of different associations having around five lakh members joined the agitation to press for their 10-point charter of demands.
The agitating drivers stopped vehicles on national highways and interior roads at different locations causing inconvenience to commuters. They held protests in their respective districts and block headquarters instead of staging demonstrations at the state capital. The vehicles engaged in emergency services and carrying students to examination centres were, however, spared.
The Mahamanch resorted to strike after their discussion with Commerce and Transport Minister Tukuni Sahu remained inconclusive. The drivers have been demanding social security, including pension after 60 years of age, death and accident benefits, parking and toilet facilities along roads beside the formation of a welfare fund.
Mahamanch president Prashant Menduli said the minister gave them false assurance of constituting a committee to look into their demands. "The state government had assured us to form a committee and consider our demands when we were on strike last time. Nothing has happened. We will continue the strike till our demands are met," he said.
All Odisha bus owners’ association, truck owners’ associations and auto rickshaw owners’ associations, had announced not to join the agitating drivers, claiming they are not getting protection from the local administration to ply the vehicles.
Secretary of bus owners' association Debendra Sahu said bus services are smooth in some routes as all drivers have not joined the strike. "The services could have been smooth had the police provided protection as assured by the DG of police. It is surprising that the unruly drivers are blocking national highways and disrupting vehicular movements," he pointed out.
On Tuesday, the state government instructed Transport department officials, all collectors and SPs to have a contingency plan to avoid any inconvenience to the public, especially the students appearing for examinations.
After a meeting with officials at the Secretariat, the Transport Minister had warned that any obstruction will be viewed seriously by the law enforcing authorities. However, no action has been taken against anyone for disrupting vehicular movements till the last report came in.