GUWAHATI, Oct 24 � Accusing the government authorities of �patronising� the utter chaos in the State�s public transport system as well as the entire scenario concerning the running of commercial vehicles, public activist Prof Deven Dutta today said that all commercial vehicles including city buses had been operating in serious violation of the provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act-1988.
Addressing a press conference, Prof Dutta said that while the public transport system was running as per the whims of the operators caring little for passengers� safety and comfort, equally appalling had been the manner of plying of various types of commercial vehicles.
�The situation resembles a jungle raj with all rules and norms thrown to the winds. This can happen only with tacit support of the government machinery including politicians, bureaucrats and the police,� he said.
Prof Dutta demanded that the Government either do the needful to restore some semblance of normalcy in the crumbling public transport system or nationalize the public transport system by banning private operation of the bus service.
Terming the recent revision of city bus fares as totally unjustified and arbitrary, Prof Dutta said that first the bus operators needed to ensure quality service and only then would the question of hiking of fares arise.
�The bus operators are already making undue profit by compromising on several crucial areas of passenger safety, comfort and dignity. The violations include carrying passengers well beyond the stipulated norm, stopping vehicles for prolonged periods at bus-stops, stopping vehicles wherever and whenever they please, not issuing tickets, blocking the path of other vehicles while stopping, etc.,� Prof Dutta said.
He said that to top all this, the recently-effected hikes were absurd in that the percentage in the increase had been well over 20 per cent or 25 per cent as claimed by the bus operators.
�Moreover, various fares now involve 50 paise coins � something done with the sinister motive to ensure that the passenger ends up paying 50 paise more as 50 paise coins are not readily available,� he added.
�The people must protest this arbitrary hike and refrain from paying the increased rates imposed on the commuters. Fares will have to be commensurate with the service and the operators must be made to abide by all the relevant norms governing bus service,� Prof Dutta said.
Prof Dutta said that being the Chief Minister and also because of his position as the Home Minister, Tarun Gogoi could not abdicate his responsibility for the utter lawlessness in the transport scenario.
�The lawlessness is also resulting in a shocking number of deaths on the State�s roads everyday. Why cannot the Government intervene to ensure that vehicles ply according to rules and norms?� he said.
Prof Dutta said that the so-called tourist bus was a misnomer in the State in that those buses did not conform to even the basic norms made mandatory by law but continued to charge very high fares under that pretext.
�These buses do not touch three States during each journey and they stop at undesignated stops to carry extra passengers � things that are not permissible for a tourist bus,� he said.
Prof Dutta further said that the practice of parking buses on roadsides during the night was having a direct link with the spurt in road accidents. �In Guwahati alone, hundreds of city buses are found to be parked by roadsides in blatant violation of the law,� he said.
