Irked by the special checking drive by the Transport Department, the city bus operators have threatened to go on an indefinite strike. On Wednesday these operators abruptly stopped the services of the city buses and protested at the office of Regional Transport Officer (RTO).
On Wednesday the Transport department launched a drive to check driving licenses, overloading and travel without tickets in the city buses. The teams of RTO imposed penalties on the city buses which infuriated the operators. Heated verbal exchanges occurred at many places between the RTO officials and the City Bus operators. The operators later assembled at the RTO office and halted the services of the city buses. The bus operators met the ARTO (administration) Sandeep Saini and alleged that the department is taking against the city buses only and sparing the three wheelers and Vikrams in the drive. The bus operators told the ARTO that if the department continues with the alleged one sided action against the city buses the operators would go on an indefinite strike, the responsibility of which would be solely on the transport department.
The president of City Bus operators V. V. Dandriyal said that the High Court has given order to the Transport department to initiate action against the illegal Vikrams but the department has failed to take action against them.The Transport department constituted three teams and launched an extensive drive at many places of the city on Wednesday. In the drive penalties were imposed on many city buses, Vikrams, three wheeler and four wheelers. These teams were led by ARTO (Administration) Sandeep Saini, ARTO Arvind Pandey and ARTO Ram Prakash Rathore.