Ruling out any hike in bus fare, West Bengal transport minister Madan Mitra today urged bus operators not to resort to the proposed two-day strike from September 19.
"Why 48 hours? The state government will not effect any bus fare hike even if the operators resort to 96-hour strike", he said commenting on the proposed bus strike.
The transport minister said the bus operators should return their permits if they were not plying the buses.
He said there would be no further discussion now on the issue of fare hike.
Dubbing Mitra's comment as "unfortunate", joint secretary of joint council of bus syndicate Tapan Bandopadhyay said that the minister should ponder as to "why we cannot provide bus service on September 19 and 20".
He said that bus operators met the transport minister several times in the past to discuss the issue, the last being on September 2 and apprised him their difficulty.
