Kerala - Kochi   

Bus operators to stage dharna

KOCHI: The All-Kerala Bus Operators’ Organisation will hold a dharna in front of the Secretariat on Wednesday to draw the State government’s attention to what it calls woes of the private bus transport industry.

The dharna will highlight the anomalies in the Motor Workers’ Welfare Fund and student concession, it said here on Monday.

N.P. Raja, president of the organisation, said the welfare fund rules were against the interests of the workers. If the workers failed to pay their share to the fund, the government appropriated even the contributions made by the bus owners. This was unjust and amounted to robbing the workers of their due. The transport officials insisted that the owner pay the welfare fund contribution even before a new bus was on the road and staff were appointed to run it.

Mr. Raja said the organisation was pressing for revising the student concession, which was determined in 2001.

Currently, students paid only 16 per cent of the cost of travel and the organisation was seeking to get it raised to 50 per cent. It wanted a 10-year moratorium on issuing permits for new buses. Mr. Raja said there were nearly 30,000 private buses in Kerala, while Tamil Nadu had only 15,000.

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