In support of their demand, the city bus operators continued with their strike on Saturday, causing inconvenience to the commuters, the office goers and the students. However, the transport department has served notice to the striking bus operators under Section 86 of MV Act for not plying buses on the assigned routes and having their buses parked in the transport office instead.
More than 450 buses plying on various routes- Vikasnagar, Rishikesh and other parts of the district, all of them would be served such notices, said Sudhanshu Garg, Dehradun RTO officer.
He further said that though a meeting was held with the agitators on Friday it has failed to yield positive results. Garg expressed the hope that the strike would be called off by Monday. Protesters said that their plight vis-a-vis those who are operating Vikrams on the roads is miserable. “While the vikram owners are earning around Rs 1000 per day we are earning Rs 400 or Rs 500 per day,” one of them said.
Anand Kumar who is studying in a private school said that buses not plying in the city for the last few days, he is walking all the way to the school which is around four kilometres away from his rented home. The office bearers of the agitating association claimed that more than 500 vehicles were off the roads on the day. The association demands that the administration and the transport department must respect the order of Uttarakhand High Court (HC) and stop illegal movement of Vikrams in the city especially around the Clock Tower area.