Caught in legal tangles, transport reforms trip

Jupinderjit Singh
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, September 18

Even as half of the Congress government’s tenure is over, the transport sector is working on the same rules as it did during the 10-year rule of the SAD-BJP government. Some Congress leaders and legislators had been crying hoarse over the domination of the Badal family’s transport firms on key routes in the previous government and they are doing the same during the rule of their own party since March 2017.

The alleged illegal extension of route permits extended to the transport lobby continues even after the court ruling to the contrary. Public transport buses have stopped plying to the international airport in Delhi, while private buses, again mostly ruled by companies owned by the Badal family, continue to ply on the routes charging double the fare than the public buses. The Punjab Roadways has been incurring a loss of nearly Rs 50 lakh per month on this account.

The contentious time-table of buses drafted in favour of private buses too is continuing as usual. On the key route i.e. “Chandigarh circuit”, one political family, which controls nearly 90 per cent of the about 70 routes, has the monopoly. The much-needed support for the public transport by increasing the fleet of buses for the PRTC and Punjab Roadways has been missing. Though the government provided nearly 300 new buses for Punjab Roadways and another about 400 to the PRTC in the first year of its tenure, after that, there has been no addition. A proposal to add 100 new buses is doing the rounds for last almost one-and-a-half year, but it yet to be approved. The Punjab Roadways has a shortage of nearly 450 buses against its sanctioned fleet, although the PRTC has the requisite buses.

Nirmal Singh Dhaliwal, general secretary, PRTC Workers Union (AITUC), said the time-table continued to favour select transporters. “While public transport buses get few minutes at bus stands, private buses get much longer time to pick passengers,” he alleged.

No Assembly session has passed in this government’s tenure without a Congress legislator raising the issue of the transport mafia. From former minister Navjot Singh Sidhu to MLAs, including Kulbir Zira, Amrinder Singh Raja Warring and Kuljit Nagra, all have been raising this issue. It was a bone of contention during the Congress party’s meeting as well when MLAs and ministers entered into bitter argument with each other on alleged favouritism to buses of belong to politically influential families. 

In one such meeting in August this year, Transport Minister Razia Sultana had a heated argument with legislators, who had questioned the non-implementation of the new transport policy announced by the state government. It is said that the minister almost threatened to hit one of the MLAs. The government denied it later.

The Congress government had promised this policy in its election manifesto. It also said that it would provide route permits to unemployed youths. The policy was announced, but it is yet to be implemented as some transporters moved the court against it.

A government official, wishing not to be named, said, “Almost all decisions taken by the government or the Transport Department have been challenged in the court due to which desired changes cannot be brought. Still we have checked plying of illegal buses and tried to rationalise the time-table also.” Transport Minister Razia Sultana was not available for a comment, while Transport Commissioner Dilraaj Singh declined to talk about the matter.

Congress MLA Avtar Henry Junior, who also represents the Motor Vehicle Transport Union, said he and other transporters had been raising the issues at several levels. “The transporters, barring a few, are suffering huge losses. The discrepancies in the timetable do not provide a level-playing field. Further, the government has increased taxes per seat and per route, besides imposing a social security tax of 10 per cent on the state road tax. At the same time, the prices of fuel were not rationalised even when these were down in the international market.”