MP: Schools remain shut amid bus drivers' strike, commuters suffer

The schools declared a holiday today in view of the bus drivers' strike while some held online classes. Daily commuters, particularly the officer-goers were badly hit as there were no buses, autos or cabs on the road.

Bhopal:Schools across Madhya Pradesh that were supposed to reopen after the winter vacation on Tuesday, decided to remain closed for another day due to the ongoing truck and bus drivers' strike with some of them conducting online classes. The overall transport services were badly hit in many areas of the state.

Buses did not leave for any city from Bhopal's Inter State Bus Terminal leaving commuters wandering helplessly at the bus stands as many returned home after failing to find any bus. People who had reached from other cities were in a soup as they could neither return home nor get to their scheduled destination.

Buses plying from Bhopal to all routes including Indore, Gwalior, Jabalpur, Sagar, Chhatarpur, Pune, Chhindwara and Nagpur remained non operational. Both long and short distance buses remained non operational and even autos and private cabs were unavailable. In order to restore public transportation, the Bhopal City Link Limited (BCLL) called upon all its drivers to join duty but nobody responded. On normal days, over 4,000 autos and 2,500 cabs ply in the city.

The office-goers faced a harrowing time as they had to arrange their own vehicles to reach office. Many office-goers who left home with their vehicles were in for a shock when they arrived at the petrol pumps for fuel as there were long queues in front. Shivkumar Soni, Chairman of Madhya Pradesh School Bus Service Operator Committee said that none of the school buses and vans ran today.

The drivers of buses and trucks are demanding withdrawal of the new provisions of the hit-and-run cases which includes increasing imprisonment to 10 years and fines of upto Rs 7 lakh for accused drivers.

Read more