Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Unions postpone bus strike

parleys:Transport Minister V.S. Sivakumar holding discussions with representatives of bus owners' unions in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The bus owners' unions in the State postponed their plan to go on a strike from Wednesday seeking an increase in the bus fares following the latest increase in the price of diesel.

During a discussion here with Transport Minister V.S. Sivakumar on Monday, the unions said they would not go on strike from Wednesday following the Minister's request to wait till July 15 before deciding whether to go on strike on not.

Mr. Sivakumar told them that the government wanted time to take stock of the situation. The government wanted to study what quantum of increase in bus fares was warranted. He said he would have the matter studied and hold a discussion with them on July 15.

This was not a matter that he could decide on his own arbitrarily, Mr. Sivakumar told them. It had to be considered in detail and a decision had to come from the political leadership of the ruling United Democratic Front (UDF).

Union leaders presented to the Minister a set of demands, including an increase in the minimum bus fare to Rs.6, an increase in the per-kilometre fare, and steps on the part of the government to protect them from harassment by the Motor Vehicles Department in the name of speed governors. They wanted the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation to stop introducing bus services along the routes covered by them, thereby destroying the viability of their services.

The union leaders said they drew the Minister's attention to the need for a permanent mechanism to ensure that the bus, autorickshaw and taxi fares reflected the actual input costs on transportation, such as the cost of diesel and the cost of spare parts. This had become all the more inevitable in the context of frequent increases in the costs of petroleum products. During the time of the previous government, there was a proposal to set up a transport regulatory commission for this purpose. Such a mechanism would ensure a solution to the fare-related travails of bus operators, they said.

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