Bus strike not to be held in Odisha: Minister Tukuni Sahu after meeting with owners’ association

Bhubaneswar: Bus strike will not be held in Odisha for the time being, said Transport Minister Tukuni Sahu after a meeting with the bus owners’ association here, today.

“The meeting between the Transport Department and the association members was successful. There will be no bus strike. The association will submit its demands in written form within October 30. A departmental committee will look into the demands,” the minister said.

However, bus owners’ association secretary Debendra Sahu said the meeting was neither a success nor a failure. “The bus strike has been postponed till October 31. It has not been called off. The general body of the association will take decision on further course of action in a meeting to be held on October 30,” he said.

Notably, the association had on October 20 launched bus strike opposing the Location Accessible Multimodal Initiative (LAccMI) scheme of the state government. However, it later announced the postponement of the strike till October 31 on the very day.

“We have demanded that buses under the scheme should only ply from panchayats to blocks and not to district headquarters. We have also urged the government not to introduce Mo Bus service in rural areas,” said Sahu.