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Bus owners, Goa Transport Department on collision course
Goa Transport Department and the private bus owners are on a collision course with the latter calling for a strike on Thursday and the former threatening to cancel the permits if the buses go off the road.
Goa Transport Department and the private bus owners are on a collision course with the latter calling for a strike on Thursday and the former threatening to cancel the permits if the buses go off the road.
The bus operators have given the Goa bandh call to protest what they claim rampant corruption and irregularities in the department.
"The behaviour of bus owners is irresponsible. They are not going to achieve anything by trying to paralyse the public transport system when examinations are going on in Goa, Transport Minister Ramakrishna Dhavalikar told reporters in Panaji.
Sudeep Tamankar, General Secretary of North Goa Bus Owners' Association, is on a fast-unto-death near the Transport Department's office here since yesterday demanding justice to the operators and sacking of corrupt officials.
The Minister today termed the strike call as an ego issue. The bus owner whose permit has been cancelled because of opposition from the locals are acting against the department, Dhavalikar alleged.
He said the government will be forced to nationalise all the troubled routes in Goa and hand them over to state-run Kadamba Transport Corporation Ltd (KTCL), if private bus owners do not desist from pressure tactics.
