Without obtaining permit from the State Transport Authority, as many as 18 buses are playing on the Bhubaneswar-Jeypore route via Andhra Pradesh,” said two bus owners at a Press meet here on Tuesday.
Tusharkant Acharya and Pankaj Kumar Patra drew attention of the State Transport Authority in this regard, stating that they face huge losses because there were almost 18 vehicles running unauthorised in the same route on possessing contract carriage permits. Without proper permit from the Government, they are operating the buses by using goons, they further alleged.
They said that it was a headache for the State to provide transportation facilities to the people of the underdeveloped KBK region.
A few bus owners including them came forward responding to the Expression of Interest called by the Government to ply buses on the route, but they were threatened by the goons and also faced great financial losses due to the clandestine operation of the other buses.
When the bus owners informed about the unauthorised running of contractual vehicles, the concerned associations vehemently refused to admit to operating of such buses by their members, the aggrieved bus owners said.
They demanded smooth running of stage carriage vehicles and imposition of an immediate ban on the 18 contractual-permit vehicles which run unauthorised and pose an obstacle in the way of business of stage carriage owners.