Private bus drivers may not get pay for April

Over 6000 private buses were being operated in the districts as stage carriages while about 4000 omnibuses are operated on a hire basis. With the lockdown implemented from March 24, all the bus services had come to a grinding halt. On an average, six persons including driver and conductor or helper would be employed.

“We were able to pay wages for the March as we had collections till the end of that month. But now that operations have come to a standstill, it would be difficult to pay wages for April. We have to retain employees and they won’t come back if we don’t pay the wages. We don’t know how we are going to survive post-lockdown,” lamented a bus owner.

S Saravanan, a private bus driver at Cuddalore said that he was would get a daily wage of Rs 700 to Rs 1000 per day depending on the ticket collection. “Since we get daily wages, we will not be getting any wages for April when the bus service was halted due to lockdown. Hence I along with the conductor of the bus have started to sell vegetables to meet our daily requirements,” he said.

All Omni Bus Owners and Operators Association has appealed to the Chief Minister to exempt the buses with State permit from paying road tax for this quarter and also to provide an extension of time frame to pay the road for tax for the next quarter – July to September. “The government should provide assistance to the 51,000 families directly dependent on the omnibus services,” stated the association general secretary A Anbalagan.