In a major respite for the passengers, the private bus owners’ association on Monday announced to defer their proposed indefinite strike which was earlier scheduled to start from October 10 (tomorrow), 2023.
The All Odisha Private Bus Owners’ Association announced the decision after the steering committee meeting. As per the decision, the private bus strike in Odisha has been put on hold till October 31, 2023.
After the steering committee meeting, Private Bus Owners’ Association Secretary, Debendra Sahoo said “The Odisha government has agreed to provide permits to old buses and extend the deadline for fitment of VLDT and panic buttons by another year. On our demand regarding Mo Bus, the government assured us that there will be no extension of Mo Bus. A review meeting on our demand for financial assistance will be held on October 13.”
As the Odisha government is not operating buses from block to district, we have decided to postpone our strike till October 31, said Sahoo.
On the Odisha government’s decision to launch affordable transportation for people across the state under the location-accessible multimodal initiative (LAccMI), the Association Secretary said that they do not have any problem with the government running buses in rural areas from panchayat to blocks. The government has procured 1600 buses for this purpose.
“We have requested to include our buses in under the scheme. The fares and other issues will be finalised in the next 20 days. We have asked the government to include private buses in this. We will ask the government to use the same colour as used by the government under LAccMI,” said Sahoo.