Private bus strike across Odisha leaves passengers in trouble

Bhubaneswar: Bus services have been hit across Odisha as over 17,000 private buses have remained off the road on Wednesday as the state government did not pay heed to their demand of stopping city bus movement on city outskirts.

As threatened by the All Odisha Private Bus Owners’ Association (AOPBWA), all private buses across the state remained off the road causing immense inconvenience to the passengers and daily commuters.

Long-route passengers have stranded at district headquarters bus stands. Daily commuters have also faced problems in moving to their destinations.

While autos are minting money taking undue advantage of the bus strike, employees, students and people from all walks of life dependent on their daily communication have been left high and dry to fend for themselves.

The bus strike is likely to continue till noon as another meeting is scheduled to be held between the Transport Minister and association members at 11 am.

It may be noted that the association decided to keep buses off the road after a talk with Transport Minister Nrusingha Sahoo and Secretary G Srinivas and Commissioner MS Madhi failed on Tuesday.

According to association secretary Debashis Nayak, city buses are a major threat to private buses since the Government has allowed them to operate on routes of the latter.