Bhubaneswar: The Private Bus Owners Association on Thursday announced to go on an indefinite strike from 6 AM on Friday (Oct 20) after the meeting between the Association and the government failed to resolve the problem.
Earlier, the Private Bus Owners Association had called for an indefinite strike from October 10 in protest against the launching of Location -Accessible multimodal Initiative (LAccMI) bus services from panchayats to district headquarters by the state government.
The strike was postponed from October 10 to 31 after the government at a meeting on October 9 had assured to ply the LAccMI bus service from Panchayats to block and to allow private buses to ply from Block to District headquarters.
Today, a meeting was held with the Chief Minister’s office to resolve the deadlock but it failed to break the ice as the government did not give any written assurance to ply the LAccMI bus service from Panchayats to block.
Around 14,000 private buses will remain off the road tomorrow in response to the call given by the association. As lakhs of passengers depend upon private buses daily to reach their destination and the Durgapuja around the corner, the passengers will have a harrowing time to reach their home due to the strike.
The impact of the proposed strike was visible on Thursday as thousands of passengers flocked to various bus stands and bus stops in Bhubaneswar to board the bus before the strike.
