The buses remained off the roads in the State thereby leaving commuters in lurch on a hot Saturday. Demanding fulfilment of their eight-point charter of demands, bus owners went on an indefinite strike from Saturday leading to great difficulty to people who were seen running here and there in their bid to reach their destination even around the divisional headquarters.
Whether it may be a long or short rout buses all of them halted. The bus operators have however, kept buses those have been booked for marriage function free from strike.
People were seen hiring taxies and auto to reach their destination. Overloaded taxi and autos were common view on Saturday.
President of Bastar Bus Owners’ Association Gupta alleged that for the last two months bus owners association was asking Transport Minister Rajesh Munat to solve their problems but the State Government was not paying any attention forcing the bus operators to take the unfortunate decision of indefinite strike.
Talking about alternate way, Gupta said that as the Government is not serious about the problems of the bus operators, therefore it is the State Government who will make the alternate arrangement for public transport as well.
Vice-president of the Association Anuj Singh said that after the closure of buses’ operation operators are suffering `25 lakh loss per day whereas people coming from far off places are facing difficulty in reaching their destination.
Notably, bus operators are demanding increase in fare from seventy five paise per kilometre to `1.25 per kilometre, lessening of tax charged for sleeper facility, relaxation to bus operators in insurgency areas, checking of buses by transport department sleuths instead of police, limiting the operation of taxi, maxi cab in a defined area besides two years time for changing the dilapidated buses.
Two months ago they had put their demands before the Government but when the State Government did not pay any attention to their demands they were forced to go on indefinite strike.