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Court raps Kerala bus operators

Bus owners taking unilateral decisions, says court
Invoke ESMA against bus operators: forum

Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Tuesday orally criticised the bus operators for going on an indefinite strike.

Justice P.N. Ravindran observed that he would not hear arguments on petitions filed by the bus owners challenging the various decisions taken by officers under the Motor Vehicle Act and rules until they withdrew the strike. The judge made the observation when a case relating to route permit filed by a bus owner came up before him. The court observed that the owners were taking unilateral decisions. The judge said that the strike had caused severe hardships to commuters. He said he was making these comments because he saw the hardships being experienced by the commuters.

Meanwhile, an organisation called Forum for Awareness and Socio-cultural Transformation of Women filed a public interest petition seeking a directive to the State government to invoke the provisions of the Essential Service Maintenance Act against the bus operators to avoid inconvenience to the public.

The petition also sought a directive for taking immediate steps to cancel the permits of those private buses which were on indefinite strike. It also pleaded for a directive to the government to provide an alternative transport system in the State.

The petitioner pointed out that strikes by private bus operators were not a new phenomenon. They would go on strike to put pressure on the government to concede their illegal demands. In fact, the government would ultimately concede their demand after allowing the bus owners to subject the public to hardships.

The petition also pointed out that the government had already entrusted to the National Transportation Planning and Research Centre the task of studying the issues raised by bus owners.

The fare revision had been accepted in principle by the sub-committee set up by the Transport Ministry. Transport Minister Jose Thettayil had even said that the recommendation could be implemented only after getting a report from NATPAC.

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