Vehicles operating parallel services charge four times normal fare
The State-wide strike by a section of private bus workers hit normal life in the district on Tuesday. The strike was called by the Kerala State Private Bus Transport Workers’ Federation, affiliated to the Centre of Indian Trade Union (CITU), seeking acceptance of its charter of demands.
The services of Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) buses and shuttle services started by owners and vans and other vehicles were no solution to the travel woes of commuters.
Bus stands and major bus stops in towns witnessed crowds of passengers waiting for KSRTC buses and other vehicles to go to places of work.
The commuters on the Kannur- Thalassery, Kannur- Iritty, and Kannur-Payyanur stretches were badly affected by the strike.
The vehicles that operated parallel services were reported to have collected three or four times the normal bus fare from the commuters. The striking workers took out a demonstration in the town in the morning.
Staff Reporter writes from Kasaragod: The day-long strike partially affected life in Kasaragod.
As private bus workers kept away from operating services to express solidarity with their agitating comrades, trade and business volumes registered a visible low.
However, the strong presence of Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) buses on the Mangalore- Kasaragod- Kannur stretch of the national highway and the Kasaragod- Kanhangad State highway was a solace to the travelling public.
Public transport vehicles plied in urban and semi-urban localities. Students, office-goers, and women commuting from and to hilly hamlets were the worst hit. Many travelled by train in view of the limited number of KSRTC buses. Many traders closed shops early in view of the poor business.
Keywords: Public transport, private bus strike
Kochi has had a fairly reliable bus service, operated by private sector players, all these years. With proper facilitation and regulation, by the government (a role that only it is empowered to take on), the private players would very easily have met the needs of the city adequately. Instead of doing just that, the government chose to take on the role of the player in addition, even with its poor track record across the other parts of the state, and has ended up making a total mess of the services in the city.
And, while thus doing everything possible to kill private entrepreneurship in the bus services sector, the government, on the other hand, recently went on to host its "Emerging Kerala Investors’ Meet" in great grand style. The question that arises here is how can any investor take a government, that treats the existing businesses the way it does, seriously, and invest in any new business in the state? Not surprisingly, all the investments that are happening seem to be in trades like in gold jewellery, silk sarees, liquor, etc, but very little that can contribute to much needed economic growth.
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