Himachal: Transport Dept cracks down on vehicles from other states

Cracking down on private and Volvo buses from other states, which are ferrying passengers, besides transporting goods, in violation of permit conditions, the Transport Department has challaned over 15 vehicles in the last three days.

Regional Transport Officer Kavita Thakur said a special drive had been started to check vehicles registered in other states, which were plying on contract carriage permit. Personal vehicles being unauthorisedly used for commercial purposes, too, are under scanner. A penalty of more than Rs 3.5 lakh has been realised for various violations.

While a contract carriage is supposed to ferry passengers on booking and requires a valid permit under Section 66(1) read with Section 74 of the Himachal Pradesh Motors Vehicles Taxation Act, 1972, it has been observed that the vehicles were not only ferrying passengers, but also transporting fruits, vegetables and flowers. The practice was not only hitting the revenue prospects of commercial vehicle owners, but also causing loss to the state government.

The practice was more pronounced on the Parwanoo-Solan-Shimla highway as the road connects states like Punjab, Haryana and Delhi to Shimla.

“Such vehicles end up cheating the state of Special Road Tax (SRT) levied as per the provisions of the Himachal Pradesh Motors Vehicles Taxation Act, 1972, besides eating into the revenue of the Transport Department by offering a parallel unauthorised transportation mechanism,” explained Thakur.

The officer added that the loss of revenue on account of online booking apps like BlaBlaCar has also come to fore. It has been observed that private vehicles are surreptitiously offering hiring facilities through online booking application causing loss to the exchequer.

In a bid to curb these illegal operations and to ensure passenger safety, the Transport Department has initiated a special enforcement drive. It will continue till August 8 and will focus on checking contract carriage violations by Volvo and private buses from other states plying in Himachal without the SRT.

Officials are also targetting other violations like overloading by goods carriage vehicles as they compromise with the safety, besides causing more wear and tear of road. Other violations like absence of high security registration plates are also in the focus of the officials, who usually descend on the road in the evenings when such activities peak.

While the fund-starved state government has issued monetary targets to the Transport Department by issuing challans for various violations, such illegal activities are also hitting the financial health of the state-run Himachal Roadways Transport Corporation, which is already reeling under losses.