Chandigarh: Private buses in Punjab stayed off the roads on Tuesday as their operators were on a one-day strike against the alleged failure of the AAP government to fulfil their demands, including waiver of tax for the COVID-19 pandemic period. The bus and minibus operators under the banner of Punjab Motor Union also staged 'dharnas' at many places like Amritsar, Patiala, Sunam, Hoshiarpur, Phagwara and Ajnala. The protesters carried black flags and raised slogans against the state government.
With private buses off the roads, commuters, including women and children, faced a lot of inconvenience. Unlike buses of the state-owned undertakings, private and minibus operators are dominant in the rural routes as they ply in the interiors of the state. Besides the tax waiver, they are demanding a hike in fares and want compensation for the decision to provide free rides to women in state-run buses. Sukhwinder Kaur, a nurse who hails from Kang village in Tarn Taran district, said she was unable to arrive on time for her duty in Amritsar city due to the strike of private buses.
Charanjit Singh, a resident of village Jagdev Kalan, said he has to visit Amritsar city daily for business purposes and faced many difficulties while commuting on Tuesday. Gian Inder Singh Dosanjh of Shri Guru Ramdas hospital in Amritsar said due to the strike, the number of patients was comparatively less on Tuesday. In Hoshiarpur, 70-year-old Urmila Devi was waiting for a bus to go to her village. She said she will have to hire a three-wheeler if no bus came to take her to Kot Patial village.
At a protest in Patiala, Tejpal Singh, a bus operator, said that private bus operators had been demanding that the state government waive tax till December 2021 as they had suffered financially during the COVID-19 pandemic. The private bus operators also said that the ongoing free bus service to women in the state-owned buses had also hit their businesses. They said the state government should allow free bus service to women only on Saturday and Sunday in a week.
"Because of free bus service to women, our business has been affected badly," said a bus operator in Jalandhar, adding that the state government should compensate them. Protesters also said that they had been demanding a hike in bus fares in the wake of an increase in diesel rates. They were also demanding that the bus stand fee must be abolished. The private bus operators said that they had already apprised the state government of their demands, but no action had been taken yet in this regard. There are around 2,200 private buses in the state. (PTI)
