Private bus operators to reject CM Mamta’s subsidy

Kolkata, June 27 (HS) In a major blow to the state government, all the private bus operators in the city unanimously turned down Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee’s proposal of monthly subsidy of Rs 15,000 to each of 6,000 private buses and mini buses that operate in the city for the next three months. The government on Friday stepped in to provide a Rs 27 crore bailout package to insulate private bus operators from the loss they incurring owing to the rise in diesel price and bring them back on the road from July 1.

In an emergency meeting, held on Saturday afternoon to discuss the Chief Minister’s proposal, the members of all private bus operators in the city, numbering about 50, have unanimously decided to reject the government proposal because of its ‘non viability at the present juncture’ and persisted to their earlier demand in favour of further hike in fare structures for a ‘permanent solution before the resumption of normal services’.

Elaborating the reasons for their unanimous decision, General Secretary of West Bengal Private Bus Operators Association Pradip Basu told Hindusthan Samachar that the Chief Minister’s offer of Rs 15,000 for each of 6000 private buses for the next three months was totally ‘insufficient’.

 He said since the introduction of Unlock 1.0 from June 1, as many as 2500 private buses were plying in the city on regular basis despite incurring a daily loss of around Rs 2,000 each because of high diesel price and carrying only limited number of passengers.

Under the circumstances, the government’s monthly subsidy offer of only Rs 15,000 at the rate of only Rs 500 a day, is not enough to meet the daily expenses and the loss, Basu said. Moreover, he said if more buses would start plying on the city roads with very limited number of passengers in only about 31 routes, our loss would increase manifold because of the simple mathematical reason. Hence, we will formally communicate our decision to the state government on Monday after another round of meeting tomorrow.

Incidentally, the Chief Minister in a desperate bid to end the present deadlock, had appealed to the city’s private bus operators to run their entire fleet of over 6,000 buses from July 1 to ease the miseries of passengers, particularly the office goers including many women in the present critical time.

‘I am also fully aware of your problems’, she told the private bus operators and announced that from July 1 all the employees of private bus service would be brought under the state government’s free ‘Swastha Swati’  health scheme where they would get the benefit of free treatment in any hospital upto Rs 5 lakhs each.