In protest against illegal plying of Vikrams, the city bus operators organised a vehement protest outside the office of Regional Transport Officer (RTO), Dehradun on Tuesday. The association of city buses of Dehradun also stalled the operation in most routes of the city. On the day large number of members of the association congregated at the RTO office and started slogan shouting. The agitators also parked many buses in the campus of the RTO due to which the work of the office got affected. The member of the association has a heated argument with the transport department officials when they were asked to remove the buses from the campus.
The President of the association, Vijay Vardhan Danadriyal said that strike was successful and buses on most of the routes barring Rajpur -Clement town and Raipur- Premnagar route were off the road. He said that the agitation would be intensified in coming days and on only written assurance from authorities the agitation would be suspended.
The association members said that administration and transport department should respect the order of Uttarakhand High Court (HC) and stop illegal movement of Vikrams in the city especially around clock tower area.
The association is of the view that contract carriage vehicles like Vikrams are illegally plying though the Uttarakhand High Court in an order dated May 27, 2014 had clearly stated that the contract carriage vehicles like Vikrams should be stopped from picking retail customers on selected routes. The association alleges that the financial condition of the bus operators has taken a plunge and many of them are not in a position to repay loans and meet the requirement of their family.