CHENNAI/COIMBATORE: The All Omni Bus Owners Association announced that they will not be operating any services to Kerala from Saturday 8 pm. The move followed the detention of around 30 buses by the Kerala Transport Department and imposition of hefty fines for alleged permit violations.
The association, in a release said, the services will not be resumed until the issue is resolved. It urged the Tamil Nadu government to immediately intervene and resolve the issue amicably.
According to the statement, the Kerala Transport Department imposed fines ranging from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh per bus on Friday, resulting in hardship to the passengers and operators.
The association said the suspension of services is likely to affect large number of people, particularly the devotees of Lord Ayyappa travelling to Sabarimala in the coming weeks.
In this regard, around 15 TN omni buses en route to Kerala (that departed on Friday night) were stopped before Walayar on the Salem-Kochi highway in Coimbatore on Saturday morning.
The passengers, opposing the drivers’ sudden decision to suspend services, demanded that they either refund the ticket fare or drop them at their destinations. Following an hour of heated arguments with the passengers, the drivers resumed operating the buses towards Kerala from Walayar around 7.30 am.
Walayar is located on the TN-Kerala border.
Before that, the passengers told reporters that when they boarded the buses, the drivers had not informed them that they would not enter Kerala. They pointed out that except for a few buses registered in Nagaland, all other buses proceeded to Kerala along this route.
All Omni Bus Owners and Operators Association founder A Pandiyan told TNIE that buses with an all-India permit pay a road tax of Rs 90,000 to the central government every three months and the centre gives this amount to the respective states.
“Besides, we pay road tax to the TN government based on the number of seats, and no other tax is required,” he said.
As Kerala imposed taxes on TN buses citing lack of permits, they have stopped operating services to Kerala, he added.
Moreover, the association has placed a notice at the omni bus stand in Coimbatore city stating that bookings for Kerala have been closed.
“Recently, the TN government also collected amounts ranging from Rs 20,000 to Rs 1 lakh from omni bus operators running inter-state services between TN and other states in the name of a special tax. This is illegal. Following this, bus operators from other states have urged their respective governments to levy tax on buses registered in TN. Consequently, Kerala and Karnataka have adopted the same practice, which has affected our business,” he said.
Condemning the action of the Kerala Transport Department, BJP MLA Vanathi Srinivasan demanded that the TN transport minister should hold talks with his Kerala counterpart to find a solution to the problem.