Rajendra Prasad Mohapatra

Though the Drivers’ Mahasangha has announced an indefinite bus strike from March 15 in the State, members of the All Odisha Bus Owners’ Association seem to have distanced themselves from it.

Following a meeting with DGP Sunil Bansal on Tuesday to discuss the law and order situation during the protest, the Association announced that plying of buses will be normal across Odisha during the strike on Wednesday.

“All Odisha Bus Owners’ Association has not put forth any demand for the strike announced by the Drivers’ Mahasangha on March 15. We will normalise the plying of private buses on Wednesday. We have already written a letter in this regard to the government on March 11,” said All Odisha Bus Owners’ Association Secretary Debendra Sahu.

“They have not put forth any demand before us. We met Police DG and ADG and requested them to take care of the safety and security of buses running across the State during the strike. Following assurances from them, we have decided to run the vehicles tomorrow,” said Sahu adding that none of our staff belong to the Drivers’ Mahasangha.

As per Sahu, the Drivers’ Mahasangha had called this type of strike earlier too, but they had not included private buses in it.

“They have called for the inclusion of private bus services in their strike this time. However, this is not acceptable as we are giving more wages to our employees than their demand. I urge their association to refrain from the strike and initiate a discussion with the government,” said Sahu.

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