Private bus owners call off strike in Kerala

Kozhikode: The state-wide indefinite bus strike which was to begin on Tuesday has been called off.

Private bus owners in Kerala had decided to go on a strike from February 4, demanding a revision of the minimum fare from Rs 8 to Rs 10. The strike will begin on February 21 if the issues are not resolved within February 20, the bus owners said.

The decision was taken following a meeting held with State Transport Minister A K Saseendran in Kozhikode.

Besides the main demand of increasing the minimum fare to Rs 10, the bus owners also demanded the government to fix a minimum charge of Rs 5 for students. "The process of examining the various demands by the Justice Ramachandran Commission will commence prior to February 20," Saseendran said.

At present, the base fare of the bus service is considered for computing the tax. "The bus owners' demand to change this criteria to the number of seats per bus will be considered this budget," the minister said while assuring that he will communicate the demand to the Finance Minister.

According to the bus owners, more than 3000 private bus services were stopped last year on account of incurring losses.