Hyderabad: AP Transport Minister Perni Nani finds fault with TSRTC officials

Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh Transport Minister Perni Venkataramaiah (Nani) on Saturday said the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) officials were the reason behind the delay in taking a decision on operating inter-state buses between the two Telugu States.

Addressing a press conference here at Lake View Guest House, Perni Nani said the issue would have been solved if it was a political one, but since the issue was related to the officials, it got delayed. The Minister clarified that the talks were almost coming to a conclusion but the TSRTC officials could not bring required papers with them in the meeting and in the wake of continuous holidays for the next three days, the agreement is likely to be entered on Tuesday.

The AP Minister said the APSRTC was ready to start operations without agreement to provide relief to the passengers, but the TSRTC officials said they could operate buses only after entering into an agreement. He said that the APSRTC officials had been talking to the TSRTC officials since June 18. "We are ready to accept whatever they say but the TSRTC officials are not ready. They said they would have operations only after a written agreement," said Nani.

Perni Nani said the APSRTC was operating buses from the borders to different areas of Andhra Pradesh for the benefit of passengers till the Dasara festival. The buses would be operated from border check posts in Vijayawada, Kurnool and Suryapet. He urged the TSRTC officials to operate buses till the check post instead of depots so that the passengers can catch buses directly from the check posts.

Justifying the hike in penalty amount on the violations by motorists, the AP Transport Minister said that this was for those who did not follow the rules and drove the vehicles irresponsibly. He said that the government had to implement these new penalties because the State government had no choice but to implement the Central Motor Vehicle Act.

"These penalties are to control the irresponsible persons and the government has no intention to collect money from the people who follow the rules," said Nani, taking exceptions to the criticism on social media.

The Minister said that there was no relation of potholes with penalties by the government. "It is natural to have potholes during heavy rains. During the time of N Chandrababu Naidu, there were no rains hence there were no potholes," said Nani.