Bus services in 14 districts of Odisha will remain suspended for 24 hours on Monday following the strike call by the private bus owners’ associations.

The Private Bus Owners’ Association of southern and western Odisha have been protesting against the state government’s decision regarding the introduction of tier-II buses under the Location Accessible Multi-modal Initiative (LAccMI) scheme, the flagship programme of the government to provide a seamless and affordable public transport network in rural areas across Odisha.

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The state government is planning to launch bus services from blocks to the district headquarters across Odisha under the tier-II LAccMI.

A private bus owner claimed that the association had welcomed the government’s decision to launch the tier-I LAccMI bus services facilitating connectivity between Gram Panchayats and their respective Block headquarters. However, private bus owners will incur huge losses if the state government decides to launch affordable public transport services from the blocks to district headquarters under LAccMI tier-II.

The president of the Sambalpur district Private Bus Owners’ Association, Pradeep Kumar Pradhan told IANS that the private bus owners have no issues with the tier-I (block connectivity) or tier-III (Intercity Connectivity) bus services under the flagship LAccMI scheme.

“However, we have apprised the government about our objections to the introduction of the tier-II bus services under the flagship LAccMI scheme even during the discussions with the state government at the time of the launching of the scheme in the state last year. The government had then assured us it would ensure that the private bus owners would not incur any losses due to the scheme,” said Pradhan.

Meanwhile, the state Commerce and Transport Minister, Bibhuti Bhushan Jena, has called the private bus owners’ associations for a meeting at Berhampur on Monday to discuss their demand.

Pradhan further asserted that 24 associations of 14 districts of the western and southern parts of Odisha are taking part in the strike. He said that the All Odisha Private Bus Owners Association has been supporting the strike call by the associations in southern and western Odisha.