The striking private bus operators will meet Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in the capital on Tuesday, even as the government commenced steps to crack down on the indefinite strike which has kept 14,500-odd private buses off roads for four days.
The meeting at the Secretariat between Mr. Vijayan and the office-bearers of the Private Bus Operators Confederation, a forum of 12 operators’ associations, will take place after the Cabinet meeting. The operators will present before Mr. Vijayan their demand for a raise in the minimum bus fare to ₹10 and a proportionate increase in the concessional fare of students.
The talks they held with Transport Minister A.K. Saseendran in Kozhikode on Sunday had failed.
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The meeting is also against the backdrop of the show-cause notices served on the striking operators by the Regional Transport Officers (RTO) and Joint RTOs for permit violation, the strike by student organisations against increase in students’ bus fare, and a section of bus operators withdrawing from the stir and resuming services in Thiruvananthapuram and Alappuzha.
The notices were served to the striking operators on Monday morning on the instruction of State Transport Commissioner K. Padmakumar. The operators had been given two days to reply to the show-cause notice, a top MVD official said.
Chairman of the confederation Lawrence Babu said except for the operators of 50 buses in the capital and another 25 in Alappuzha, all other private bus operators were on strike.
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“We are sticking to our demands and hope that the government will respond positively and save the private bus industry,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation operated 5,399 schedules in the State on Monday. It operated additional 223 services in routes monopolised by private buses.