On the orders of Secretary Transport Brijesh Sant, rapid action was taken from Saturday night to Sunday evening against illegal private buses running in the state by defrauding the Transport Department of lakhs of rupees in taxes. In the campaign conducted in Dehradun, Haridwar, Roorkee and Rishikesh, 50 buses were challaned and 9 buses were seized. During this, action was also taken against illegal passenger and cargo vehicles being operated along with the buses. During the campaign, a total of 181 buses were challaned and 15 were seized. At the same time, to avoid checking, the drivers and conductors of four illegal buses fled leaving the buses unattended near Dehradun ISBT. These buses were also challaned. During the last two roadways employees’ strike regarding action against illegal buses in the state, the Secretary Transport had ordered the RTO enforcement to take action by running a special campaign for 15 days. In this sequence, on the orders of RTO, in the campaign started from Saturday night, enforcement teams of Dehradun, Haridwar, Roorkee and Rishikesh took action together. This created panic among illegal bus operators.
Illegal buses are flouting the rules
Illegal deluxe buses are not only carrying passengers illegally, but are also flouting transport rules. According to the transport team, the chassis of most of the buses are more than the rules and more seats have also been installed in them. Not only this, permit and insurance papers were also not found in some buses. These buses are operating from Dehradun, Rishikesh and Haridwar to Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, Aligarh, Lucknow and Kanpur etc. and are cheating Uttarakhand of crores of rupees in taxes. Online ticket booking is also being done against the rules in illegal buses.
MLA Chamoli also expressed displeasure
During the inauguration program of new buses at Dehradun ISBT on Sunday, Dharampur MLA Vinod Chamoli also expressed displeasure over the operation of illegal buses around ISBT. He raised the question in front of the Chief Minister that how are these buses being operated. On this, the Chief Minister also ordered the Transport Department to take action against illegal vehicles.
Passengers created a ruckus
Most of the buses seized are sleepers, which were running for Agra, Jaipur and Lucknow. When the transport teams got the passengers down, they also created a ruckus. The passengers said that they want to travel while sleeping at night. Therefore, they book tickets in private buses. At the same time, a passenger was saying that the journey in these sleeper buses is comfortable by saying that he has children with him. He alleged that the roadways does not have sleeper buses, so why should he travel in a roadways bus. However, the Transport Department explained to the passengers with great difficulty and later the passengers were sent off by arranging roadways buses.
