Written by: Express News Service
2 min readKolkataOct 8, 2012 04:44 AM IST
First published on: Oct 8, 2012 at 04:44 AM IST
Private bus operators and taxi unions have once again threatened to go on an indefinite strike beginning this Tuesday to press for their demand of a fare hike.
With the government remaining firm on not increasing the bus fare despite hike in diesel prices,the Sunday’s meeting between the operators and Transport Minister Madan Mitra failed to arrive at a mutual decision. Mitra told operators that if they are running into losses then they should ply one bus instead of three on one single route.
“We won’t increase fare be it of bus,minibus and taxi. We urged them to ply one bus instead of plying three buses in a particular route to avoid financial loss,” said Mitra.
Hitting back at the minister,Sadhan Das,secretary of Joint Council of Bus Syndicate,said: “It is nearly impossible for us to run private buses without increasing the fares. If we have to ply one bus too we will be facing losses and so we are not eager to run our buses,if fares are not hiked.”
Both the sides will meet on Monday again to break the deadlock.
The taxi unions too have called a strike from Tuesday if fares are not increased.
With puja round the corner,a transport strike would cause immense problem for the commuters.
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