The luxury of flouting norms: How contract carriage buses ply illegally
Ravinder Sood
Palampur, July 15
The Congress-led government’s assurance of halting the illegal operation of luxury buses in the state has failed to come to fruition.
Private luxury buses with contract carriage permits have been operating illegally in various towns of Kangra and Mandi districts, causing huge losses to the state exchequer every day.
According to the norms of the contract carriage permit, these buses can pick up passengers only from their starting station. However, bus operators often pick up passengers on the way to their destinations from towns such as Baijnath, Paprola, Palampur, Kangra, Dehra Gopipur and Una, violating the rules. For such operations, these buses require stage carriage permits.
According to an official of the Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC), over 100 such buses have been plying from Kangra and Mandi districts to New Delhi, Chandigarh and other destinations.
Stage carriage bus operators pay state road tax, which is charged from the passengers. However, contract carriage bus operators do not have to pay this tax, and instead pay taxes based on the number of days they operate their buses, the official said.
The tax paid by contract carriage vehicles is much less than the state road tax.
“As per the policy of the state government, HRTC buses have to operate from designated bus stands. On the other hand, buses plying illegally start their journeys from non-designated spots in areas such as Baijnath, Jogindernagar and Bir,” he added.
The fares of HRTC buses are fixed, he noted.
“Since contract carriage buses do not pay the state road tax, they operate as per the convenience of customers and charge fares as per their suitability,” he added, claiming that higher authorities were aware of the malpractice. However, no steps had been taken to curb this practice, he said.
Most of these buses were registered in Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, he added.
