PRTC workers to gherao yatra buses to Patna Sahib

Gagan K Teja

Tribune News Service

Patiala, December 31

The Punjab Government’s much-hyped move to take pilgrims to Patna Sahib on the 350th birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh may land in trouble as the PRTC Workers Action Committee, Patiala, has decided not to allow PRTC buses to ply.

The workers have decided to gherao the buses as the proposal will be financially damaging for the corporation and will allow them to run only after the state government clears all dues of the PRTC amounting to over Rs 130 crore.

Around 140 PRTC buses are scheduled to be flagged off from 46 Assembly segments of the state on January 2 and the rough estimate of this trip, including providing boarding and lodging and food to pilgrims, toll taxes and travel permits, comes out to be Rs 6 crore.

General Secretary of the PRTC Workers Union Nirmal Singh Dhaliwal alleged that the SAD-BJP government was making last-minute efforts to woo voters ahead of the Punjab polls, but at the cost of people’s money which was unacceptable.

Notably, many several trade unions and affiliates of Left parties have already filed a complaint with the Election Commission alleging that crores of public money was being spent on hosting such yatras to gain political mileage just ahead of the Assembly elections.

Dhaliwal said the state government was yet to pay pending dues worth Rs 130 crore to the PRTC, including Rs 90 crore for free-of-cost travel to students and government employees, Rs 15 crore for previous religious yatras, Rs 8 crore for purchasing 50 mini-buses under the Pendu Bus Service scheme and Rs 9 crore annual loss for running these rural service on non-viable routes.

He added that the action committee had even met the Election Commission in this regard urging them to immediately stop these buses.

However, PRTC Managing Director Ravinder Singh claimed that the Punjab Government had in principle agreed to give Rs 1 crore advance payment to PRTC for this yatra and they would put up the bills for the remaining expenditure after they return from the yatra. “We have allowed the buses as the scheme seems beneficial to us,” he added.