Odisha: Statewide bus strike put on hold

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Bus Owners’ Association has decided to postpone its planned statewide bus strike from January 17 (Tuesday).

The association had earlier announced to hold statewide strike seeking fulfillment of its 10-point charter of demands.

“We have decided to postpone our planned strike from tomorrow after fruitful discussions with the state government,” said Odisha Bus Owners’ Association secretary Debendra Sahu.

The state government has fulfilled three of our demands in the first phase and it has assured us to fulfill the remaining by March 31, Sahu added.

“The state government has sought some time to fulfill the rest of our demands. We have accepted the state government’s proposal but we will resort to agitation if it fails to fulfill our demands by March 31,” Sahu said.

According to Sahu, the state government has assured the bus owners’ association to raise the duration of its scrapping policy to 20 years from the existing 15 years. Similarly, the state government has agreed to permit the association to run sleeper coaches in daytime, he added.

“We have decided to postpone the statewide bus strike till March 31 as per the request of the state government,” said Odisha Bus Owners’ Association spokesperson Debashish Nayak.