Kasaragod: Private bus operators and employees in Kasaragod will march to and picket the District Collectorate on July 6, demanding relief from the state government over losses they say they have suffered since the launch of the Priyadarshini free travel scheme for women.
The protest was announced after a joint meeting of bus owners and workers, who claim the free travel facility introduced on KSRTC buses from June 15 has sharply reduced passenger numbers on private services.
Kasaragod District Private Bus Operators Federation president K Gireesh said operators were losing around ₹3,000 a day on each bus and warned that the losses were becoming unsustainable.
“We are not planning to suspend services because that would only make matters worse. But the government cannot expect private operators to absorb these losses indefinitely,” he told reporters on Friday.
The federation argued that the government introduced the scheme without assessing its impact on the private bus sector. It also questioned the eligibility criteria, pointing out that, unlike Karnataka, where similar concessions are restricted to women residents of the state, Kerala’s scheme allows all women passengers, including tourists, to travel free of cost on KSRTC buses.
The protest, the bus operators said, has received support from both the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), affiliated to the CPM, and the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), the trade union backed by the RSS.
Kannur bus owners head to Secretariat
Meanwhile, the Thalassery Private Bus Operators’ Association has announced a protest in front of the Secretariat against the Priyadarshini free travel scheme.
The association said bus owners and their family would stage a relay protest at the Secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram from July 20 to 25. It said the Priyadarshini scheme has dealt a double blow to private operators, coming on the heels of the Union government’s ₹8-a-litre increase in diesel prices.
“A bus that consumes about 100 litres of diesel a day has to shell out ₹800 more daily,” said general secretary K Gangadharan.
“We are now struggling even to pay our workers’ wages. If the government does not step in with a solution, the industry will collapse on its own,” he said.
