Pokhara, May 13

The Gandaki-Dhaulagiri public transportation coordination committee on Sunday started its protest against the registration of a new bus entrepreneurs’ committee here in Pokhara.

The coordination committee has said that the registration of the new committee was against the consensus reached earlier.

The agitating entrepreneurs staged a sit-in in front of the Kaski District Administration Office (DAO) from for three hours today. They blamed the DAO of allowing another bus entrepreneurs’ body to get registered without carrying out any study regarding the requirement of public vehicles in Pokhara.

A couple of days back, the DAO had recommended for the registration of an independent city bus entrepreneurs’ committee.

The protesters stopped all the vehicular movements in the city by parking their vehicles on roads and streets.

President of the coordination committee Basant Pradhan said that the government needed to carry out studies in regards with the addition of new vehicles before issuing permits to such bodies.

"We are forced to organize protests as the formation of the new bus entrepreneurs’ committee could not only affect the beauty of Pokhara but also hit the existing billions of investments made in this sector," Pradhan said.

The coordination committee’s other demands include a full implementation of the earlier all-party agreements, formation of a separate ministry of transportation, construction of bus park in Pokhara, among others.

He also claimed that the protests were not aimed at protecting the syndicate system in public transportation. "We have tried t protect the rights of transport entrepreneurs," he said.

The committee has also announced its phase-wise protests and warned that it would bring the vehicular movement to a halt if its demands are not met.