City bus services resume with 100% occupancy after 4-day ‘chakka jam’

GUWAHATI: After being on strke for four days, city bus services resumed in Guwahati on Friday with 100% occupancy after the state health department’s nod to the transport department.
The health and family welfare department, after careful consideration of all aspects, has given nod to the transport department to allow passenger and city buses to ply with cent percent passengers adhering to certain guidelines. An order issued by the health department stated, “The vehicles will not carry passengers more than the allowed sealing capacity and no passengers will be allowed to travel standing in the vehicle.”
Masks for the commuters and drivers and other staff of the vehicles have been made mandatory. The department also directed the vehicles owners to ensure the availability of sanitisers in the vehicle and sanitisation of the vehicles after every completion of a journey on a route.
Violation of any of the guidelines either by commuters or by the buses will attract penalty. “Transport Department will take strict action in case of violation of the extant Government guidelines and instructions,” the order stated.
The All Assam Motor Transport Association (AAMTA) was on a strike since Monday demanding permission to ply the city buses with 100 percent passengers or an increase in fare till the Covid-19 protocols are in force. This had resulted in severe inconvenience to the commuters.
Later, state transport minister Chandra Mohan Patowary convened a meeting with the association on Tuesday. The meeting, however, failed to break the deadlock and the indefinite strike continued. Urging the association to call off the strike, the minister had said that the department could allow city buses to ply with 100 percent occupancy only with permission of the health department.
During the strike period, the Assam State Transport Corporation (ASTC) had operated 650 government buses and also privately owned buses across the state.
However, the government has not given any decision on the other demands of the association, including 50 percent waiver in road tax and waiver of quarter tax of two months till the Covid protocol is in force in the state. “The government has not given any decision on other demands now since these are financial matters. It will take some time,” Pradip Das, general secretary of the association said.
AAMTA had earlier said that the government’s failure to solve the problems faced by thousands of workers since the lockdown was imposed has hurt the workers. “The pandemic has worsened things. The government has now allowed resumption of transport services after the prolonged lockdown for over six months and put restrictions on it. So, we have raised some demands,” the general secretary had said.