Private bus owners association threatens strike

Agartala, Oct 28 (UNI) The Private Bus Owners Association has threatened to go on strike following a fiasco over fare hike in the Agartala-Guwahati and Agartala-Silchar routes.

Briefing mediapersons last evening, the office bearers of the North East Inter State Bus Association (NEISBA) claimed that the government had shown apathy towards their various problems which led to the hike in fare in the mentioned routes.

Justifying the hike, the association members said it was hiked in accordance with an Asom government notification of 2004 for Asom State Transport Corporation (ASTC) buses.

"According to the notification, the fare for the Agartala-Guwahati sector was fixed at Rs. 513. But we are charging Rs. 13 less," the association members said.

Asked what prompted them to hike the fare by Rs. 100 without any prior notification, they explained that it was owing to rise in fuel, lubricants, and tyre prices. The bus owners association accepted the fact that they had failed to inform the people before effecting the fare hike. ''But we had given prior information to the government. They had failed to inform the public,'' they added.

Meanwhile, the transport department had filed cases against five bus owners for collecting excess fare from the passengers. Officials has been raiding the premises of private bus owners located at the Tripura Road Transport Corporation complex since the last two days collecting tickets and papers from them.

A top official of the transport department said that show cause notices had been served to the owners of various inter state buses for charging excess fare without citing valid reasons.

UNI PD-PB PL SS1359