Indus Valley Times

By Sukant Mohanty

Bhubaneswar, Oct. 8: The All Odisha Bus Owners’ Association has called for an indefinite strike across the state from October 10 over various demands. This decision of the association has come as a serious concern for the commuters across the state.

The association has called for the strike accusing the state government of being callous towards their demands and showing no intent to sort out the issue through discussion, informed general secretary of the bus owner’s body, Debendra Kumar Sahu on Sunday.

“The Odisha government has refused to accept our demands and did not even call us to sit across the table to sort out the issue. Hence, we have decided to go for the strike. Even the buses engaged in the educational institutions will go off the road,” he said.

“We had given a proposal to the state government to allow their buses to operate in rural pockets under Location-Accessible Multimodal Initiative (LAccMI). For over three months now, the government has not listened to our demands. It did not even invite the bus owners for a round table discussion. We had earlier observed the strike in Koraput, Nabarangpur, Malkangiri and Rayagada on October 2. No buses will ply across the state from October 10 and that too for an indefinite period,” Sahu added.

The bus owners had earlier protested strongly against the Odisha government’s decision to launch affordable transportation for people across the state under Location-Accessible Multimodal Initiative (LAccMI).

According to sources, around 14,000 private buses are being run in Odisha by 8,000 bus owners.