April 21, 2009 4:16:47 am
Controversial BJP MLA Madhu Srivastava on Monday threatened to set on fire the buses of private operator VTCOS if the company decided to start its services at Ajwa.
VTcos had on Sunday sent one bus to Ajwa on a trial run,following which local autorickshaw (locally known as chhakda) operators threatened to resort to an agitation.
A day after,Srivastava,who is MLA from the Waghodia constituency,met chhakda operators and ensured them that the bus service would not start in Ajawa.
Srivastava told Newsline: Stretching the VTCOS bus service to Ajwa is a question of livelihood of hundreds of families who are into chhakda business. They have given their land for government projects and lost their original business of farming. Now,if they are planning to take away this means of livelihood,it is certainly not allowed. If any VTCOS bus would come without my knowledge it would be set on fire.
Best of Express Premium
He added that at most,they can be allowed to do business once a week,but not on a daily basis.
On the other hand,state transport worker unions have threatened to close down its divisional workshop on April 24 if the issue was not resolved. We have been raising this issue since long,but it has not been taken seriously. Now,we will not tolerate the delay and initiate the agitation, said ST Employees Union (INTUC) Manoj Joshi.
There has been an ongoing rift between the Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation and VTCOS about stretching the city bus services to the outskirts,including several villages like Padra,Ajawa and Jambuva.
The Vadodara Municipal Corporation has made it clear that it is a matter between VTCOS and the Regional Transport Office,which will give permission in case the city bus services are stretched.
- The Indian Express website has been rated GREEN for its credibility and trustworthiness by Newsguard, a global service that rates news sources for their journalistic standards.
