Poor security: Incidents of theft on rise at bus stand

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, June 16

With no security arrangements in place, there has been a significant rise in theft cases at the city bus stand. There have been reports of two-wheelers being stolen from the bus stand in the recent past.

Recently, an LED was also stolen from a private bus parked at the bus stand. Besides, a number of pick-pocketing cases have also been registered at the bus stand police station, but it seems no step has been taken to curb criminal activities. Closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras have not been installed at proper places while the existing ones are lying defunct.

A majority of private bus operators allege that their buses are not safe at night despite paying all charges to the authorities concerned.

Bus operators rue that they pay Rs 35 to Rs 55 for parking buses at the bus stand at night. Besides, they also pay Rs 30 whenever their buses leave the bus stand.

Harvinder Singh, alias Happy, president of the private bus union, said, “An LED was stolen from my bus last week. Though I have lodged a complaint with the police post at the bus stand, nothing has been done in this regard.”

He further stated that neither the contractor at the bus stand, who collects charges from private bus operators, nor the PRTC authorities have appointed any security guards at the bus stand to keep a watchful eye on their buses.

When contacted, Jaskaran Singh, Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI), bus stand police post in-charge, said three theft cases had been registered since January this year while last year they had managed to trace accused in three out of seven cases.

He further stated that CCTV cameras installed by the PRTC authorities were of no use as they did not have any operator to show them the recording or reshuffle their positions to ensure a proper vigil.

Parveen Kumar, general manager, PRTC, confirmed that one LED had been stolen from a private bus parked at the bus stand. He said they had deployed a security guard at the bus stand during night, adding that they would also get the CCTV cameras repaired.