Pvt buses to off roads from Nov 1

All Odisha Private Bus Owners’ Association general secretary Devendra Sahoo said, “The transport minister had assured us to decide on fare hike by October 31 which we are demanding since the diesel price was increased on September 14. Till date we have not received any indication about the decision. We are going off the roads indefinitely from November 1.”

Earlier the technical committee on October 6 held a meeting in Cuttack following the association’s demand to hike bus fare. In a post meeting report, the transport commissioner had sent recommendations to the state government about the fare rise after the association threatened to go on a strike from October 16.

“Since the transport minister sought time till October 31 due to the ensuing festive season, we decided to postpone the strike. But now it seems the government is not bothered about it. We can’t run our buses on loss” added Sahoo saying they had been running their vehicles on losses for the past one and a half months.