Private bus operators in Kerala recently , announced that they will be going on an indefinite strike from June 7 if their demands, that are now pending before the Kerala government, are not met. In their submission, they have asked to raise the minimum bus ticket charge for students to Rs 5, and to fix an upper age limit to clearly demarcate the category of students who are eligible to claim concession. The other demands include the continuation of the present practice of issuing permits to private buses and that there should not be any distance restriction besides limited stops for buses. Incidentally, the notice for the indefinite strike mentions June 7 as the starting date, a time when educational institutions open for a new academic year.
\The protest committee comprising 12 bus organisations spoke about their decision to go on strike at a press meet in Kochi. They demanded that the Justice Ramachandran committee report, which recommended raising the minimum fare for students to Rs 5, among other recommendations, should be implemented. If private buses should continue to run, there is no other way but to raise the student fare, one of the committee members said. If urgent action is not taken, all private buses in the state would stop running, he added.The Justice Ramachandran Nair Fare Revision Committee was formed by the government to make recommendations on fare revisions in buses. The committee had recommended that both the students' fare and the regular ticket rates should be increased. However, the government decided to go ahead with the existing rates for students and appointed another committee to study the issue. Across Kerala, there are around 12,500 private buses as opposed to the 6,500 ones run by the government’s Kerala State Road Transport Corporation.