JALANDHAR
: Claiming that 5,000
mini buses
in the state were crucial for rural connectivity, the
Mini-Bus Operators Association
has requested the governor to look into the matter regarding their permits being declared null and void till a new elected government takes over.
The operators on Sunday blamed the state transport department for failing to properly represent their case in the court and working only for protecting big transporters. The association also announced that in case transport department officials tried to stop their vehicles, they would hand over the keys of their buses to the Governor and launch the next phase of agitation. The association leaders added that they would also stop government-owned mini buses also.
Association patron Surjit Singh Soeta and general secretary Tarlok Singh Batala in a joint statement issued after holding an emergency meeting, said that according to the Punjab and
Haryana high court decision of December 20, 2016, mini-bus permits were cancelled but the bureaucracy did not move the Supreme Court.
“Our association has been raising the corruption issue in the transport department but the pleas have fallen on deaf ears. The case has remained in courts for 18 years but no senior officer of the transport department followed it properly. According to the transport department policy, the government had to launch 20 per cent state government-owned buses but that was not done in a proper way,” association leaders said.
“An appeal was filed in the Supreme Court by the bureaucracy against the high court decision of December 2012. That petition was dismissed in 2016 and the appeal filed by mini-bus operators was sent back to the high court, which again dismissed the review petition filed by operators, terming all permits as null and void,” association senior vice-president Jarnail Singh Garhdiwal said.
Association leaders added that the state government should have moved the Supreme Court to challenge the high court order of December 2016 but “the corrupt bureaucracy” did nothing to protect the 5,000 mini-bus operators.
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