The School Bus Owners Association of Maharashtra has announced an indefinite strike starting July 2, 2025. As part of the protest, school buses across the state will remain off the roads.
The association is protesting against what it terms as unjust issuance of e-challans by the traffic police and the increasing surveillance through CCTV cameras. The timing of the strike — just as the new academic session begins — has triggered concern among students, parents, and school authorities.
The Maharashtra government has proposed setting up a committee to investigate the school bus operators’ concerns and submit a report within 30 days. However, with the new academic session already underway and daily transport disrupted, bus owners are demanding immediate and interim relief to address the issue without delay.
While addressing the ongoing crisis, Anil Garg, president of the School Bus Owners Association of Maharashtra, highlighted the main concern behind the strike. “The core issue – school bus operators have been consistently penalised through multiple daily e-challans, particularly while performing their primary duty of picking up and dropping off students at school gates. In many cases, fines are being issued repeatedly within a single day for stopping momentarily outside schools – a necessity given the lack of proper parking infrastructure,” he said
He further stated, “This has become financially unbearable. We are being fined simply for doing our duty, and the cumulative burden of these penalties is threatening the survival of our operations.”
“We hope for immediate intervention from the honourable chief minister and transport minister to prevent large-scale disruption to student transportation across Maharashtra,” he added.
In view of their protest, the association has put up four demands in front of the authorities:
Wavering of e-challans: Immediate waiver of all pending e-challans issued against school buses for duty-related halts near schools.
Moratorium: The association protesting has demanded a moratorium on e-challan issuance until proper school pick-up/drop-off zones are demarcated.
Formation of a joint task force: The association also demands a joint task force consisting of government officials, RTO, police, and transport unions to find a long-term resolution for better administration and protection from exploitation of bus operators.
However, the state government has not issued any further statement on the matter so far, leaving the situation uncertain and unresolved for now.
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