Transport minister Champai Soren has said that the Jharkhand government was unlikely to allow resumption of bus services anytime soon, given the steady rise in the number of Covid-19 cases across the state.

There is no question of resuming bus services anytime soon. We haven’t even started thinking about it. The way coronavirus cases are on the rise, the situation is not appropriate yet. The chief minister is personally monitoring the overall situation,” he told The Telegraph online on Monday.

Hit by several financial losses, bus operators across Jharkhand are now planning to approach Jharkhand High Court to press for a waiver of road and other taxes as none could ply their vehicles during the continued lockdown since March.

The current lockdown in Jharkhand is scheduled to be in force till August-end.

Earlier, during a phased withdrawal of lockdown curbs over a month back, the state government allowed autos, e-rickshaws and cabs to ply but with strict safety protocols.

The standard operating procedures (SOP) issued by the state transport department restricted the number of people on board each mode of transport besides issuing other dos and don’ts to prevent over-crowding.

The minister conceded that bus owners were facing a huge crisis because their fleet had been grounded since March but added that allowing them to start plying now would lead to further chaos.

“It will be virtually impossible to control crowds, their movement and behaviour if we allow inter-state and intra-state bus movement. We will think about resuming services only after August,” he said

But bus operators are getting desperate. Uday Prasad Singh, the president of Jamshedpur Bus Operator’s Welfare Association, announced on Monday that they were left with no option but to knock the doors of the court.

“We met with officials and leaders of the state government, including chief minister Hemant Soren, several times, demanding waivers in road and other taxes on humanitarian grounds as all our buses are grounded since March 24. But the state government has not responded. In such a situation, our only option is to take legal recourse. We will move court formally very soon,” he said.