Manjit Narang gets additional charge of PRTC MD

Gagan K. Teja

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Tribune News Service

Patiala, April 1

After Pepsu Road Transport Corporation (PRTC) managing director Ravinder Singh resigned from the post on March 30, the Punjab Government has given additional charge of the PRTC to Manjit Singh Narang (IAS), Additional Chief Electoral Officer, Punjab. This is the second time he has been given the additional charge as the PRTC MD.

Earlier, when Narang had joined in January 2015, the PRTC was literally struggling with its dept mounting with each passing month. The condition was so bad that the Punjab and Haryana High Court, in about 100 cases of contempt against the PRTC management for defaulting on the payment of mandatory dues to its employees despite repeated directions from the court, had directed the corporation to sell off its properties to clear the dues.

Following the orders, the PRTC had even floated tenders inviting bidders for purchasing its two prime properties, including an 8.45 acre stretch of its head office in Patiala and around 818 square yard of the Phagwara bus stand on the Jalandhar-Delhi national highway, to settle its dues.

However, Narang started the process of completing the PRTC fleet, which was extremely short and added 350 new buses to its fleet changing its fortune. PRTC’s daily receipt crossed the Rs 1-crore mark within a few months, but then Narang was sent as an observer during the Bihar poll for one month and during the period, the receipt again fell by Rs 30 lakh per day. However, immediately after his joining, he pulled up the staff and the collection reached the same amount.

Despite his achievements in less than one year, the Punjab Government then took away the additional charge of the PRTC from Narang in December, 2015. The move has invited the wrath of different unions who claimed that the Punjab Government had deliberately removed Narang since he had brought the derailed PRTC back on track, which had adversely affected the revenue of the influential private transporters, including the Badal family.