Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Wednesday announced an “Open-Ended Mini Bus Permit Policy”, with no deadline for rural youth to apply for such a permit. At the same time, the Chief Minister also laid the foundation stones of Rs 5.16 crore worth of high-tech State Transport Department institutes, including home delivery of driving licences.
The Chief Minister also virtually launched distribution of 3,000 mini bus permits for the rural youth to give a boost to the government’s ambitious ‘Ghar Ghar Rozgar te Karobar’ mission, with token presentation of permits to five beneficiaries.
“While 3,000 permits are being handed over today, another 8,000 would follow through the rest of the year, taking the total to be distributed by the end of the year to 11,000, generating both direct and indirect employment,” said the Chief Minister.
Capt Amarinder directed the Transport Department to create a user-friendly online facility within the next three months for receipt and processing of applications of all bus permits to make the system far more transparent and eliminate corruption.
“These novel initiatives will go a long way in providing smooth rural connectivity and seamless delivery of citizen centric services,” said the Chief Minister, lambasting the previous SAD-BJP regime for issuing illegal permits to chosen people without due publicity or adherence to legal procedures or rules.
Recalling that the Congress Government had promised cancellation of all illegal bus permits to ensure that genuine people get the benefit of the scheme, Capt Amarinder said that under the transparent system adopted by the Transport Department, a public notice for mini bus permits was issued for the first time ever in newspapers.
People were encouraged to apply online without any hassle, and as many as 12,384 applications were received, he added.
Congratulating Transport Minister Razia Sultana and the officers of the department, Capt Amarinder said that they had set the ball rolling to achieve five-fold objective to create employment opportunity for rural youth, make travel safer for women and children, ensure vehicular traffic safer for travelers and pedestrians, reduce vehicular pollution and door-step delivery of government services.
“The fast-paced changes in technology, where transport has now reached the Mars, necessitated new initiatives,” he said, adding that Vehicle Location Tracking (GPS) Device Project, launched at a cost of Rs 15.50 crore would make travel safer for women and children in public transport vehicles.
“100 per cent such devices have already been installed in PUNBUS buses and 50 percent in PRTC buses, which would be fully covered in the next six months,” Razia said, adding the GPS system would be installed soon in private buses too.
The Chief Minister also referred to the state-of-the-art Command Control Centre at the state level and four Regional Centres to track the vehicles saying that this would facilitate handling of panic button alerts by any woman or child, online challan for over-speeding vehicle without high security registration plates (HSRP) fitment, absence of valid insurance, and pollution certificate, etc.
The foundation stone of the Institute of Driving and Traffic Research (IDTR) at Kapurthala was also laid at a cost of Rs 22.50 crore under Mission ‘Ghar Ghar Rozgaar te Karobar’, with training capacity of 20,000 drivers annually to impart quality training to rural youth, and thus generating employment avenues as skilled drivers within the country and abroad, besides creating qualified trainer base for drivers and instructors of other training institutes.
The Chief Minister said that the Institute had been planned during his previous tenure and he was happy that it had been realised now.
The upcoming training institute, to be managed by Tata Motors, would be equipped with camera — based Innovative Driving Testing System (IDTS) to assess the driving skills of the candidates. The Institute, having residential accommodation for 75 participants, would also have driving simulators with motion or static platforms.
The Chief Minister also laid the foundation stone of Vehicle Inspection and Certification Centre, Kapurthala, at a cost of Rs 17.16 crore with the aim to safeguard the passengers and pedestrians, besides reducing vehicular pollution. The Centre, with capacity to inspect 72,000 vehicles annually, would test the road worthiness of vehicles before driving, among other important features such as online appointment for vehicle testing, replacement of visual inspection with automated sensor based testing equipment, automatic inspection report after completion of inspection report without any human intervention.