‘Anomalies’ in bus permits irk youth

Rajmeet Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 12

Days after Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh virtually launched the distribution of 3,000 minibus permits for rural youths under the 'Ghar Ghar Rozgar te Karobar' mission, an anomaly in the grant of permits has surfaced.

It has been pointed out that on a number of routes formulated by the regional transport authorities (RTAs) under the small-scale bus permits in the open-ended policy, minibuses were already running under permits previously granted by the state Transport Department. This has disappointed the youth who have been granted the new permits.

One of the minibus permit holders from Doaba said, "The department, while granting new permits, should have seen if minibuses are already running on those routes."

Earlier, the department had found that the route surveys by RTAs in Malwa, Doaba and Majha regions were not done as per the specified guidelines but the anomaly was corrected by the office of the state Transport Commissioner. The open-ended minibus permit policy specifies public notice of the routes formulated but it was not followed.

JS Grewal, general secretary of the Small Scale District Bus Operators' Association, said government officials, with the connivance of transport mafia, were not following the guidelines to ensure that genuine bus operators entered the business and gave employment to rural youth. This was promoting illegal bus operations in the state, causing loss to the state exchequer. The permits of minibuses already operating were cancelled by the Punjab and Haryana High Court, but these were being renewed.

He said if the government was keen to help the unemployed, the rural routes should have a maximum length of 30 km, with 75 per cent rural route. This would avoid overlapping with buses being run under other schemes in the state.

Meanwhile, Convener, Punjab Minibus Bachao Action Committee, Surjit Singh Soita said new minibus permits were given at the cost of the existing minibus permit holders.

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