Jamshedpur: Drivers of auto-rickshaws, the most preferred mode of transport in the steel city, called off their strike on Wednesday afternoon while those of school vans announced that they too would ply their vehicles from Thursday holding out hope that residents, particularly parents of schoolchildren, would be able to breath easy after being severely inconvenienced for the last two days.
The decision to call off the strike was arrived at after separate talks were held between auto-rickshaw operators, represented by Shikshit Berojgar Tempo Chalak Sanchalak Sangh, and school van operators, represented by Jamshedpur School Vahan Seva Samity, with the East Singhbhum deputy commissioner Amit Kumar at the district collectorate.
It was agreed that school vans would carry a maximum of 12 children and special camps would be held in Jamshedpur to help drivers and operators get valid permits to ply their vehicles.
"We are happy that the administration agreed to our demands. It has fixed the seating capacity in school pool vans to 12 (excluding driver). It has also assured us that camps would be held to help us prepare papers to get commercial permits for which we had to go to Dhanbad earlier," said Gulab Jaiswal, a senior functionary of the school van samity that claims to speak for the over 3,000 van operators that ferry over 10,000 children of the steel city.
Later at 2pm, auto-rickshaw outfit patron and Congress leader Banna Gupta, who had called the strike which crippled the already inadequate public transport system of the steel city since Tuesday, called off their stir and directed autos to hit the road again.
"I am grateful to the deputy commissioner who has agreed to our demands. All operators/drivers have been asked to get proper documents and display their registration and mobile numbers, and driving licence in their vehicle," said Gupta, a former MLA of Jamshedpur West.
Over a lakh people commute daily on nearly 20,000 auto-rickshaws of which over 30 per cent do not have permits.
Wednesday was marginally better for commuters as 120 private town buses and 10 state-owned city buses plied on various routes after the Shikshit Berojgar Mini Bus Association, that represents private bus operators, had called off their strike on Tuesday.
Minister and Jamshedpur West MLA Saryu Roy met transport minister C. P. Singh in Ranchi and discussed the issue of permits and framing of rules for school vans.
