Bus strike in Odisha: Association's meeting with CMO inconclusive; final call likely by this evening 

With the meeting between the private bus owners’ association and the Chief Minister Office (CMO) on Thursday over the proposed indefinite strike yielding no results, the ball is now in the association’s court. 

Today, a meeting was convened between the delegation of the private bus owners’ association and the CMO to find out solutions to the association’s problems. However, the meeting ended with no results. 

The association members are going to hold a meeting today afternoon where they will decide whether they will put the strike on hold or go with it. 

“We put forth our demands and they said they would discuss with the government. Similarly, they gave some suggestions which we will discuss in our executive body meeting today afternoon and will announce our stand in the evening,” said Debendra Sahu, secretary of private bus owners’ association. 

Also read: Odisha private bus owners warn of strike on August 16 opposing LAccMI scheme

Since the Durga Puja is around the corner, people will go to their native places to celebrate the puja with their family members. If the private bus owners’ association stick to their stand and go with the strike from October 20, passengers will definitely face a harrowing time. 

Earlier, the association had called for an indefinite strike from October 10 onwards  protesting the launch of location-accessible multimodal initiative (LAccMI) bus services from panchayats to district headquarters. 

On October 9, they had announced that they had put their strike scheduled for October 10 on hold till October 31. However, the association had decided to start its indefinite strike from October 20. 

Notably, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik launched LAccMI bus services from Malkangiri on October 12.