Four RTAs fail to comply with order on illegal clubbing of bus permits

The regional transport authorities at Patiala, Jalandhar, Ferozepur and Bathinda have failed to comply with the instructions to rectify the illegally clubbed stage carriage bus permits.

Citing the Punjab and Haryana High Court orders, the State Transport Commissioner (STC) has now sought an action taken report from the RTAs within a week

After finding that Punjab’s regional transport authorities (RTAs) at Patiala, Jalandhar, Ferozepur and Bathinda were illegally allowing transporters to cover extra distance than permitted, the State Transport Commissioner last month directed the authorities to rectify the wrongly clubbed stage carriage permits.

Causing a loss to the state exchequer, the illegal practice has been benefitting several private transporters, including those having links with political bigwigs. Instead of issuing a composite permit, a number of permits have been bunched together to look like one.

Sources said the RTAs had failed to provide the report despite Transport Minister Laljit Bhullar recently saying that the department had observed irregularities.

JS Grewal, president of the Small Scale Bus Operators Association, said, “The nexus between the RTAs and the powerful transporter mafia runs deep in the Transport Department. There are over 600 such illegally clubbed permits. Even in the new time table issued by the department, the illegally clubbed permits have not been rectified. There is no action regarding illegal extensions.”

Influential transporters generally buy permits from small operators and then get these transferred in their names from the RTAs. The RTAs club these permits in an illegal manner. For example, clubbing of bus permits for Patiala-Sirhind, Sirhind-Khanna, Khanna-Ludhiana and Ludhiana-Jalandhar stretches is illegal.