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Private buses keep off the road

Kochi: The one-day token strike called by private bus operators in Kerala on Thursday against the State government’s decision not to renew all their permits was total.

Office-goers, ordinary commuters, school and college students were put to immense hardships as the about 16,000 private buses in the State kept off the road in response to the strike call. In many places, parallel services were operated by mini-bus operators. Though some organisations of bus owners had decided not to participate in the strike, their buses also did not ply.

The government had notified that 31 routes had been nationalised and the permits of operators on these routes would not be renewed. Following talks with the bus operators, the government has for the time being decided that permits of all operators would be renewed every four months for a year. A draft notification would be prepared containing the measures for protecting the bus transport industry. — PTI

Special Correspondent writes from Kozhikode:

Trade unions have warned that there will be a strike by autorickshaws and taxi cars on November 5 if the government does not announce on Friday an increase in fares. Reiterating the decision to go on strike, spokesmen for the trade unions have accused the government of going back on a ‘promise’ it had given to representatives of the unions to increase taxi and auto fares sometime back.

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