Rein in erring transport operators: Civil society

​Hyderabad: Several civil society members and political party leaders demanded that the governments of Telugu States draft stringent laws to rein in private transport operators. The laws should be made in such a way as to make the private operators responsible for accidents.

A discussion was organised by ‘Jana Chaitanya Vedika and Private Travels Mafia Vyatireka Porata Samithi’ on ‘illegal transportation by private travels mafia’ here at the Press Club on Wednesday. CPI State Secretary Chada Venkat Reddy said post-mortem on the body of the driver of ill-fated private bus which claimed several lives at Penuganchiprolu in Krishna district was not carried out at the instance of transport mafia.

It showed how powerful this mafia was, he pointed out. He regretted that the government had been imposing heavy tax on the State-owned RTC when compared with that of the private bus operators. The government were giving a free hand to the private operators to operate their buses on nationalised routes.

He alleged that these officials and public representatives were renting out their buses to the State-owned RTC to be operated as ‘hired buses.’ Former Additional Transport Commissioner C L N Gandhi said all the contract carriage buses were plying as stage carriers.

The RTC has a system of providing healthcare to the injured passengers or ex-gratia in case of accidents. But no such facility is being provided by private operators.