Private luxury buses to Saurashtra and other places out of the State, which took off from places inside the city, were prevented from entering the city from December 31 as they did not possess the required permit.

Passengers complain that they were being inconvenienced as the luxury buses terminated their services at the Sarthana and Puna Kumbharia octroi posts. Most vocal, however, are the diamond workers hailing from Saurashtra, primarily from Bhavnagar and Amreli and areas of North Gujarat like Palanpur and Mehsana. They claimed that with inadequate trains to Saurashtra and North Gujarat, the luxury bus service was their only mode of transportation.

Meanwhile, a number of diamond-unit owners along with office-bearers of the city unit of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad are said to have met municipal authorities on Monday evening in this connection. They are said to have been given an assurance that buses would be allowed to ply in the city between 9 pm and 8 am as vehicular traffic during these hours was minimal.

The SMC comes into the picture as it had earlier decided to construct pay-and-park zones for heavy four-wheelers in the city and the issue has been coming up for discussion at every Road Safety Council (RSC) meeting for the past two years.

A senior police officer, however, told Express Newsline that the SMC had nothing to do with the issue. ``It is a question of violation of law and enforcing the law is the job of the police, which we are doing''.

But instead of obtaining the permits, luxury buses are plying from outside the octroi limits and are picking up passengers and dropping them at the Sarthana and Puna Kumbharia octroi posts. With some buses approaching during the early hours of the day and others leaving for various destinations late at night, the move has naturally inconvenienced the passengers, who have to travel by rickshaws and other modes of transport to the octroi posts.

According to Assistant Commissioner of Police (traffic) C J Rathod, the police had decided to stick to the new directive and that it was being religiously implemented from the past 20 days. ``As the commissioner has stated earlier, the move is in the interest of the people and will greatly help reduce the traffic problem,'' he told Express Newsline.

Rathod claimed that while the State Transport Corporation (ST) had already started 12 extra buses from the city to the octroi posts, all major autorickshaw unions had also pledged their full assistance.

Rathod said that they were the same people who complained of traffic congestion -- because these buses were parked at the station, Rander, Katargam, Linear, Varachha and other places -- who were now complaining of inconvenience.

Commissioner of Police Kuldip Sharma had directed during the first RSC meeting he chaired that luxury buses which did not have the seat carriage permit required to operate within city limits would be prevented from entering the city.