Bhubeneswar, Oct 30 : The All-Odisha Private Bus Owners Association will take final decision on strike on November 8 next at Bhawanipatna, Association Secretary Debendra Sahu told newsmen here on Monday.
The General body meeting of the Association held here on Monday requested the Odisha government not to ply buses under Accessible multimodal initiative (LAccMI) scheme from Block headquarters to District headquarters in the state.
Sahu said the government will launch the LAccMi scheme in Bhawanipatna on November 1 next and if it decided to ply buses from block to District Headquarter then the private buses in Kalahandi and neighbouring nine districts will go for a 24 hours strike and no private buses will ply in these ten districts for 24 hours.
He said if the state government ignoring the request of the private bus operators decided to ply buses under the LAccMi scheme from Block to District headquarter ,then the Association will take a decision its future course of agitation at its meeting in Bhawanipatna on November 8 next.
Sahu said the Association has no objection about plying of buses by the government from panchayat to block headquarters but opposed the decision to ply buses from block to district headquarters as it would jeopardize the operation of private buses in the state .
Sources said the state government had taken a decision to charge only Rs.10 for women, students and handicapped persons to travel in buses under LAccMi scheme from Block to district headquarter in the state.
The ticket for a person travelling in the LAccMI buses will be only Rs.5 from Panchayat to Block in the state.
Sahu said it would be not feasible for the private bus operators to charge Rs.10 per ticket to travel from Block to District headquarters.He said if the state government will compensate the loss of the bus operators then only they will charge the amount fixed by the government under the LAccMi scheme.
LAccMI service launched by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on October 12 was opposed by the Private Bus Owners Association who called for an indefinite strike on October 20 in protest.
The Association however announced to postpone its strike till October 31 next after a meeting with the Transport Minister Tukuni Sahu and said a final decision on the future course of action will be taken on October 30.