Kochi: The Kerala Private Bus Transport Association has threatened to hold a hunger strike before the home of the Ernakulam Road Transport Officer on September 14 to protest the alleged harassment of bus operators by road transport officials.
A bus owner, K.S. Balakrishnan and his staff, would park his vehicle outside the home of the RTO as part of the strike, KBTA state president, Johnson Padamadan told reporters on Thursday.
While private bus owners were running their services despite the traffic bottlenecks and pitiable conditions of the roads in the city, the RTO and a section of his officers were deliberately taking action against them, he claimed.
“The permit of one bus was cancelled for four days because of a 13-minute delay in services,” he recalled, maintaining it was common in Kochi for buses to skip certain schedules because of the delay caused by the traffic snarls.
“The authorities concerned, including the RTO, must focus on ending the traffic bottlenecks and improving the conditions of the roads instead of harassing private bus owners running services despite the many constraints,” he added.
