Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Private Bus Owners’ Association on Wednesday staged a demonstration in Bhubaneswar in protest against the state government’s Location Accessible Multimodal Initiative (LAccMI) bus service.
Hundreds of private bus owners, carrying banners against the government scheme, staged the demonstration at Lower PMG in the city on the day. They also raised slogans demanding roll-back of the scheme.
Speaking to the media in the sideline of the strike, Barada Acharya of the All Odisha Bus Owners’ Association, said the LAccMI scheme would spell doom for the private bus owners in the state. “Despite our repeated appeals to the government and meeting with the officials, no step has been taken in support of our demands,” he said.
Alleging that the bus fares fixed by the government for private bus owner under LAccMI and independent bus owners was unfair, Acharya said, “While the bus fares for bus owner under the LAccMI scheme range from Rs 76 to 86 per km, those are very less for us. We demand the government to allow us to take bus fares fixed for private bus owners under LAccMI.”
The bus owners staged the protest ahead of the launch of 40 buses under the LAccMI scheme in Rayagada on November 25.
The association, at its meeting on November 8, had taken the decision on the strike in protest against the state government decision to run buses on certain routes under Location Accessible Multimodal Initiative (LAccMI).
It demanded that the LAccMI buses should operate between gram panchayats and block headquarters and not to district headquarters. Secondly, it sought compensation for those getting affected because of government buses being run between panchayats and blocks by waiving additional tax.
