Members of the Press Club of Athagarh, Athagarh Bikash Parishad, Athagarh Sahitya Samaj, Gadajat Parikrama, Sanjeevani and Bar Association on Monday jointly submitted a memorandum to Sub-Collector Harish Chandra Nayak meant for the Chief Minister demanding running of city buses to Athagarh from Cuttack and Bhubaneswar.
Recently, the Government had declared facility of city buses to Athagarh and taken the permission of the local NAC authorities to provide halting facilities to the buses, but some unscrupulous private bus owners along with some local political leaders have put pressure on the companies like Sahara and others which were interested to run buses in this route, it is alleged.
Some private owners plying buses in the Athagarh route are also allegedly monopolising the business without paying any heed to commuters’ interests. This apart, the private buses run with overcapacity of passengers and use kerosene as the fuel in their vehicles.
Different contrabands are also transported in many buses without any check. It is further alleged that Athagarh passengers are assaulted by hawkers at the Badambadi stand in Cuttack and Baramunda in Bhubaneswar where they are not given priority to board the buses. These bus owners have been frightening the company authorities interested to run city buses to Athagarh.
But the aforesaid local outfits have thrown a challenge to run the city buses at an early step and want to know the criminals who are doing the mischief.