Daijiworld News Network - Mangalore (GA)

Mangalore, Jan 13: The private bus owners throughout the state have decided to hold a day-long strike on Thursday January 25 in protest against the hike in motor insurance.  Accordingly all the private buses will go off the road on January 25. 

IRDA had recently issued a notice proposing a hike in the installments of the motor insurance.  Protesting this, private bus owners in 15 states of the country have decided to go on strike for indefinite period.  However, bus owners in the state have decided to hold strike only on January 25 since majority of people are depending on private buses for their transport in the state, said Rajavarma Ballal, president of All India Federation of Bus Owners.

While insurance companies were charging Rs 138 per seat earlier, according to the new tariff, the bus owners have to pay a whopping sum of Rs 345.  In the same way the third party insurance installment was Rs 1860 earlier which has now been increased to Rs 4, 650.  Finally while the bus owners paid Rs 22,000 as insurance, as per the new rates they will have to pay Rs 50,000.

But the bus owners of the opinion that with continued hike in fuel prices, bad roads etc, it is very difficult for them to run their buses.  So almost 8.5 lac buses will go off the road on January 25 putting another 1 crore people into trouble.