Private bus owners' body in Odisha to go on indefinite' strike from Friday

The apex private buses owners' body in Odisha has threatened to go on an "indefinite" strike from Friday, the first day of the Durga Puja festivities, over the issue of plying on certain routes.

The strike will begin from 6 am on Friday and continue for an indefinite period, Odisha Private Bus Owners' Association general secretary Debendra Sahu said.

Sahu said though the state government during a meeting on October 9 had assured that buses under the Location Accessible Multimodal Initiative (LAccMI) will not ply from the blocks to districts, "it has not been met".

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had earlier this month launched the affordable bus service under LaccMI, which aims to connect all the gram panchayats with the district headquarters and the state capital.

However, Sahu claimed that during the meeting, state government officials had given the assurance that buses under the scheme will not ply beyond blocks.

"We were told that LAccMi buses will operate only from panchayats to blocks and not to district headquarters. Therefore, we had put our strike scheduled on October 10 on hold. Unfortunately, the Odisha government-operated LAccMi buses are still plying to the districts. The admnistration has not kept its word," he alleged.

At least 1,000 buses are likely to operate in the rural areas with an allocated budget of Rs 3,178 crore under the scheme.

The state government has convened a meeting on Thursday to resolve the issue ahead of the festival days, officials said.

Odisha's road communication is heavily dependent on private bus service, with around 14,000 private buses plying against only 2,000 government buses, transport department sources said.