From Our Correspondent
Guwahati: Commuters in general were subjected to extreme difficulty in the city on Saturday as the public transport service was thrown out of gear in Guwahati with private city bus and share-taxi operators resorting to indefinite strike demanding immediate upward revision of fares in the wake of hike in fuel prices.
The private transport operators defied called from the regional transport commissioner here to sit for talks to resolve the issue and remained adamant to continue with the indefinite agitation.
The skeletal city bus service that was operated by Assam State Transport Corporation (ASTC) failed to provide any succor to such a large number of commuters in the city who have found themselves at the mercy of auto-rickshaw operators and rickshaw pullers.
The private city service operators and share taxi operators unilaterally hiked the fare from November 1 without the approval of the State Transport authority and that led to scuffles between commuters and bus operators in various parts of the city yesterday. As a result the operators decided to send all their vehicles off the road demanding immediate revision of rate of fares.
Meanwhile, Kamrup (Metropolitan) district Deputy Commissioner Ashutosh Agnihotri said that the strike resorted to by bus and taxi operators were unjustified and uncalled for. As per laid down norms they must wait for notification on fare hike to be issued by the district transport authority in tune with the State Cabinet’s recent decision to hike fares to the maximum of 25 per cent.
He said bus operators were not supposed to hike fares unilaterally. The district transport authority will hold the next meeting on November 15 next to take a decision on fare hike. Agnohotri also the chairman of the district transport authority here.
