‘Indefinite’ Strike During Festivities: Private Buses Go Off Roads Across Odisha

Bhubaneswar: Private buses went off road across Odisha as top governing body of private bus owners launched an “indefinite” strike on Friday, coinciding with the commencement of the Durga Puja festivities, to oppose Location Accessible Multimodal Initiative (LAccMI) scheme of the state government.

At the receiving end of this strike are hundreds of passengers, who could be seen waiting at bus stands across the state to go to their hometowns/villages in view of Durga Puja. Many had converged at Baramunda terminal to catch the next bus to their destination the previous evening amid the call for the strike.

Debendra Sahu, the general secretary of the All Odisha Private Bus Owners’ Association, had earlier confirmed that the strike would commence at 6 am on Friday and persist for an indefinite duration.

The bus operators, who had postponed their strike in view of the inauguration of LAccMI service on October 12, decided to go on strike as the government failed to give a written assurance over their demanded that Tier-2 service (panchayat to block level) be put on hold. This despite a meeting being scheduled on October 26 and the government having unofficially agreed to their demand with a promise to chalk out a solution before October 31.

Sahu said the indefinite strike during Puja time is not intended at putting people in trouble. “We were forced to launch the strike against our will. We tender an apology to the commuters for the inconvenience.”

However, regional associations at some places have decided to continue operations. “”We are not against the strike, but this is not the right time; declaring about tomorrow’s strike today evening is not right,” Balasore district private bus owners association president had said.

Notably, Commerce and Transport Minister Tukuni Sahu had appealed to the umbrella association to withdraw its decision in view of the festive season. “The decision of the association is completely unilateral; we called them for discussion again on October 26th; people should not suffer; LAccMI is a people-friendly scheme and it will continue,” she said.

Odisha’s road transportation heavily relies on private bus services, with around 14,000 private buses in operation, in contrast to only 2,000 government-owned buses, according to transport department sources.