Maharashtra school bus owners to go on indefinite strike from July 2

Representational Image. File Pic

The School Bus Owners Association of Maharashtra declared an indefinite strike. The school buses amid the protest will not be operational from 2, 2025.

The strike from the school bus operators comes in protest against the unfair issuance of e-challans by the traffic police and CCTV surveillance systems in Maharashtra. The move by bus operators, which comes just around the beginning of new academic sessions, has surely raised concerns among students, parents and even school administration.

It has been reported that the Maharashtra government has proposed forming a committee to investigate the issue and submit a report within 30 days. However, with the new academic session underway and daily transport at risk, bus owners are seeking immediate and interim relief in view of this matter.

While addressing this serious situation, Anil Garg, who is the president of the School Bus Owners Association of Maharashtra, said, "The core issue - school bus operators have been consistently penalised through multiple daily e-challans, particularly while performing their primary duty of picking up and dropping off students at school gates. In many cases, fines are being issued repeatedly within a single day for stopping momentarily outside schools - a necessity given the lack of proper parking infrastructure."

He further stated, "This has become financially unbearable. We are being fined simply for doing our duty, and the cumulative burden of these penalties is threatening the survival of our operations."

"We hope for immediate intervention from the honourable chief minister and transport minister to prevent large-scale disruption to student transportation across Maharashtra," he added.

In view of their protest, the association has put up four demands in front of the authorities:

Wavering of e-challans: Immediate waiver of all pending e-challans issued against school buses for duty-related halts near schools.

Moratorium: The association protesting has demanded a moratorium on e-challan issuance until proper school pick-up/drop-off zones are demarcated.

Formation of a joint task force: The association also demands a joint task force consisting of government officials, RTO, police, and transport unions to find a long-term resolution for better administration and protection from exploitation of bus operators.

However, no further reply or statement by the state government has been issued in view of this matter; the situation still seems to be tricky at the moment.