Drive against erring private buses to continue in Kochi; owners threaten strike

KOCHI: As the private buses in Ernakulam stayed off the road on Wednesday to protest the ‘high-handedness’ of the police and the motor vehicles department, the police said they would continue action against rash and drunk driving by drivers of private buses.

“Police action is not targeted at anyone. We are only enforcing rules to prevent accidents in the city. We will book private buses which are into rash and negligent driving,” said S Sasidharan, deputy commissioner of police (L&O and traffic).

There are several incidents in which we have booked private bus drivers for drunk and rash driving. “We will continue with our enforcement,” Sasidharan said. Meanwhile, the owners and the staff of private buses held a “proclamation protest” to highlight the “harassment” meted out by the officials of the two departments under the guise of carrying out inspections.

As part of the protest, the bus owners and employees marched from the High Court Junction to the District Police Commissioner’s office. “We have raised many issues,” said K B Suneer of the Private Bus Owners Association (PBOA). The agitators said the officials need to stop targeting and punishing private buses. 
“The buses are seized and the workers booked for minor violations.

They are being dragged to the court for these ‘alleged crimes’,” said Suneer. According to him, the officials need to find a solution to illegal parking on roads, building bus bays, and suspend officials who harass the bus crew for no reason.

“If our demands are not accepted, we will resort to an indefinite strike from November 30,” he said. According to him, further course of action will be decided at a meeting that will be held in the coming days.