Over 500 private buses seized for collecting excess charges

Amaravati: More than 500 private buses were seized by the Transport Department during Sankranti festival in the State as the management collected high charges from passengers by violating rules, explained Minister Perni Nani at a press conference at Tadepalli in Guntur on Friday.

He warned that the government will not allow any management to exploit people in any manner.

Stating that the government will take serious action on violation of rules, the Minister informed that the department had taken action based on the complaints that came from the people and passengers regarding collection of excess price on ticket fares.

The department had conducted raids on the private travellers between January 2 and 16, seized 552 buses and lodged 3,132 cases against them, he revealed. At the same time, the government has put more number of APSRTC buses in service for convenience of the passengers during the festival season.

He further added that the raids on private buses will continue till January 20 and warned the travellers to be careful.

While reacting on BJP and Jana Sena alliance, Nani criticised that there was no match between the words and actions of Jana Sena president Pawan Kalyan.

"Pawan Kalyan is a leader who changes his colours to suit his needs. He even beat Chandrababu Naidu in pursuing political opportunism. Till now Naidu was the brand ambassador for that, but now Pawan Kalyan has taken over," Nani criticised.

However, the Minister suspected that Pawan might have joined hands with the BJP following the advice of Naidu.

Perni Nani questioned why Pawan failed to raise the issue of Special Category Status to Andhra Pradesh when he met top BJP leaders in the national capital New Delhi.

The Minister also asked the Jana Sena chief to explain why he had extended unconditional support to the BJP.