Chandigarh, August 22
The Punjab Government today told the Chandigarh Administration that it should avoid dictating what transport policy should be followed by the neighbouring Punjab.
Top brass of the State Transport Department and the Chandigarh Administration met here today to resolve the five-day dispute regarding the plying of buses from Punjab to Chandigarh and vice versa. Punjab officials also pointed out the wrong interpretation of the notification issued by the Chandigarh Administration with regard to private buses.
Punjab team was led by Mr
A.R. Talwar, Secretary, Transport and Chandigarh Administration officers were led by Mr Krishan Mohan, Home Secretary. Sources said the Chandigarh Administration had sought one month’s time to get the notification and other related aspects legally examined.
A new agreement between the Punjab Transport Department and the Chandigarh Administration would be signed after examining the notification, it is learnt.
The Punjab officials have told the Chandigarh Administration that it would allow only Chandigarh Transport Undertaking (CTU) buses to cover 37,000 km daily in the state. At present, the CTU buses were covering daily 68,000 km. The sources said the Punjab team had told the Administration to tell the CTU to withdraw those buses which plied beyond the limit of 37,000 km.
As per the rules, CTU bus can cover only 23,000 km daily in Punjab. However, Punjab had given the CTU exemption from the 12,000 km covered by it daily by plying buses between Chandigarh-Zirakpur, Chandigarh-Kharar and other local routes in the adjoining areas of Chandigarh. The sources said as per the 1998 agreement, for every 1 km covered by the Punjab buses in Chandigarh, the Punjab Government was to allow the CTU to cover 1.5 km in Punjab.
It is up to the Punjab
Government to give permit to private buses or to the Punjab Roadways or the PRTC buses to ply to Chandigarh from Punjab. The Chandigarh Administration cannot dictate Punjab.The Punjab officials have also told the Chandigarh Administration that the buses being plied under the km scheme had the approval of the state government and these were being run under a policy approved by the Council of Ministers. Plying of these buses should not be objected to by branding these as private buses.
The dispute has been going on for the past five days. The UT officials concerned were objecting to the entry of certain buses. They said because of a notification issued by the Chandigarh Administration, no private bus could ply from the bus stands managed by the Administration.
The Chandigarh officials had stopped the entry of Punjab buses in the union territory, and responding to it, Punjab had stopped the entry of CTU buses in the state.
