Bus owners have written to the Union home ministry, seeking its intervention to allow inter-state services from Jharkhand ahead of Durga Puja.

President of Bus Owners Association of Jharkhand Arun Budhia said on Sunday that they had expected the state government to allow resumption of inter-state bus services when it issued guidelines to reopen religious places. “Since that hasn’t happened, we are forced to write to Union home secretary Ajay Bhalla, seeking the ministry’s intervention to help bus operators of Jharkhand who are battling financial woes,” he said.

While the Jharkhand government allowed intra-state bus operations from September 1, it continued to put a stop on inter-state buses in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. As a part of its recent unlock notification, the state government allowed reopening of temples from October 8 and issued detailed guidelines for conducting low-ley Durga Puja celebrations.

Budhia questioned the logic behind not allowing inter-state buses to ply. “The Union government has clearly asked all states to not put any kind of curbs on inter-state movement of people. Moreover, people are anyway travelling using some or the other means. Then why should we be penalised,” he asked.

He pointed out that in any case buses were plying within the state with 50 per cent occupancy leading to huge losses. “Although bus operators are charging double the usual fare per passenger, we are yet to recover losses suffered from the time the lockdown was imposed,” he said.

Another bus operator unwilling to be named pointed out that travel between Bihar and Jharkhand was common during the festival. “By not allowing buses to operate, people are being forced to suffer,” he said.

Bus operators in Jamshedpur had voiced a similar demand last week. Patron of Jamshedpur Bus Operators’ Welfare Association (JBOWA) Upendra Kumar Sharma said, “It’s high time inter-state movement of buses is allowed from Jharkhand as running buses only within the state is financially unviable.”

Bus owners also rued the state government’s delay in accepting their demand for waivers pertaining to various vehicle taxes for the lockdown period. “We have been asking for road tax waivers for months. But nothing has been done so far. We hope this is taken up in the next cabinet meeting,” he said.