After schools & hospitals, Punjab buses don AAP colours; Opposition livid

After state-run schools and government hospitals, now nearly 250 buses of the PRTC and the Punjab Roadways are being painted in yellow and blue.

The opposition Congress has alleged that the move is part of the ruling AAP’s attempt to use public funds for publicity, as the colours are closely associated with the ruling party.

Run under the kilometre scheme, the recently procured buses are being painted in yellow and blue at a body fabrication workshop in Rajasthan. Sources said the new buses were originally painted in the blue/silver and red/silver pattern.

Transport Minister Laljit Bhullar did not respond to calls. Defending the move, a senior government functionary said there was nothing new. “During the Akali-BJP government, everything from seva kendras to buses to bicycles were painted in blue and yellow,” said the official.

Shamsher Singh, general secretary of the Punjab Roadways and PRTC Union, said first the government forcibly allowed the buses under the kilometre scheme and now the operators were being asked to paint these in blue and yellow. “The buses painted in the original blue/silver and red/silver pattern were returned to the fabricator in Rajasthan. It is sheer wastage of public money,” he said.

Questioning the move, Leader of the Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa and Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring said AAP had turned governance into a full-time publicity campaign.

“First they painted schools in the party colours, then hospitals and now even public buses are being splashed with the same colours as if Punjab’s treasury exists to fund AAP’s advertising drive. Schools are meant for teaching, hospitals for healing and buses for serve commuters — not to serve as moving hoardings for a political party desperate to manufacture perception,” said Bajwa.

SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal objected to the change in colours of PRTC buses, accusing the ruling AAP government of politicising public assets. “After pushing Punjab into debt, weakening law and order and damaging the economy, AAP is now focusing on repainting government institutions in party colours instead of addressing core issues,” said Sukhbir.

The roadways union said the government did not have funds to regularise employees but was forcing the service provider to paint the buses in blue and yellow. “Under the kilometre scheme, influential transporters have purchased buses”, said Shamsher Singh.

Under this scheme, the state government allows private operators to supply buses on lease while operations are managed by the Transport Department using government conductors. Private owners are paid a fixed rate per kilometre. A PRTC official said under the scheme, a private operator “buys a bus and gives it on lease to the Transport Department. The private operator, who employs the driver, gets compensated at a rate of nearly Rs 10 per km. The government bears the cost of the fuel and the salary of the conductor”.