Odisha Private Bus Owners Call Off Proposed Bus Strike

Bhubaneswar: The All Odisha Private Bus Owners’ Association called off their proposed bus strike from December 1 following a meeting with the state Transport Minister Tukuni Sahu.

After the meeting, the secretary of the association, Debendra Sahu informed the decision of private bus owners to withdraw their decision for private bus strike planned throughout the state from December 1.

Sahu said they were waiting for the implementation of the assurance given by the state government. “Today’s discussion with the bus owners yielded fruits. They have cooperated with the government and welcomed the LAccMI (Location Accessible Multimodal Initiative) scheme. The government will discuss how their business would not get hampered,” Transport Minister Tukuni Sahu said.

The private bus owners had given the strike call to protest against the state government’s LAccMI scheme. They have been demanding restriction of government bus services from block to district headquarters.

The association is opposed to the government’s plan to operate buses from blocks to district headquarters under its scheme- Location Accessible Multimodal Initiative (LAccMI).

Earlier, the association had postponed its proposed strike twice.

The Odisha government has launched the LAccMI scheme to connect villages to the state capital. As many as 1,000 buses will be engaged under the scheme for which a budget allocation of Rs 3,178 crore has been made by the state government.