Bhubaneswar: Even as the All Odisha Private Bus Owners’ Association (AOPBOA) on Friday said it would call off the indefinite strike immediately if the government takes a decision, passengers across the state faced a difficult time for transportation.
With Durga Puja festivities beginning on the day, passengers thronged the deserted bus stands and stoppages to go to their native places. Many of them tried to arrange alternative arrangement as about 17,000 private buses went off the roads in response to AOPBOA’s call for strike against the government’s Location Accessible Multimodal Initiative (LAccMI) scheme.
Amid scarcity of private buses, there was a heavy rush for OSRTC buses and trains. But those were not enough to meet the heavy demand leading the passengers to face a harrowing time. “I study in Berhampur and my examinations were over on Thursday but I could not find any bus in the evening to return to my house in Narasinghpur due to the strike. I boarded a train to reach the capital,” TNIE quoted Biswapriya Pradhan, a student as saying.
“This is a crisis with many people unaware of the sudden strike called by the private bus association. As the puja has commenced, the association should have informed about its decision at least before 10 to 15 days,” said Brahmaraj Kulbhusan Hemram, a passenger.
While the passengers fumed over the strike and blamed the AOPBOA, the latter said the bus services can resume within 30 minutes if the government wants. “We apologise to the passengers for the inconvenience faced by them. We are ready to resume the services. But the government should give us written assurances on the agreement we had reached in our last meeting on October 9,” said AOPBOA secretary Debendra Sahoo.
The bus operators, who had postponed their strike in view of the inauguration of LAccMI service on October 12, decided to go on strike as the government failed to give a written assurance over their demanded that Tier-2 service (panchayat to block level) be put on hold.
This despite a meeting being scheduled on October 26 and the government having unofficially agreed to their demand with a promise to chalk out a solution before October 31.
Commerce and Transport Department minister Tukuni Sahu said the association’s decision to launch the strike is unilateral as the government had called them for discussions on October 26.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday launched bus services under the LAccMI scheme in Gajapati district.