Bengal bus operators withdraw strike after government assurances

20 September,2012 06:05 AM IST |   |  IANS

Bus operators in West Bengal withdrew their indefinite strike after the state government Wednesday assured them that it would look into their demands of a minimum fare hike within 10 days.


In a bid to force the government into increasing bus fares, operators' unions went on an indefinite strike from Monday following a diesel price hike of Rs.5 per litre.

Transport operators, however, withdrew the strike after their meet with state transport minister Madan Mitra Wednesday.

"We have withdrawn the strike from today as the minister assured us that he would positively consider our demand of a fare hike by Sep 30. Bus operation will be normalized from tomorrow (Thursday)," Bengal Bus Syndicate president Swarna Kamal Saha said.

More than 50 lakh commuters in the state faced a tough time on the third day Wednesday due to the strike. Although, the government pledged to ply more public buses to maintain normalcy, the few hundred government buses were in no way able to substitute the 40,000 private ones that are off the roads.

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government assurances strike withdraw bus operators minimum fare hike