As part of road safety crusade, a special checking campaign was organised by the RTO and the traffic police on Wednesday. During the checking campaign, many buses were found plying without valid route permit, fitness certificate and other documents. A few buses were also found to be disregarding the time schedule .
Earlier the RTO, on instructions from the higher-ups had made it mandatory for all commercial vehicles such as private buses, school buses and vans and dumpers to renew their fitness certificate well in advance of the expiry date, failing which the offenders will either attract a hefty fine or cancellation of permit.
As per the instructions, a fitness certificate that verifies whether a vehicle is roadworthy or not is mandatory for all commercial vehicles, especially for buses and vans carrying children.
There is also rampant plying of buses without valid route permit by bus operators, most of them relatives of leaders of political parties, causing huge financial loss to the state exchequer. It is rumored that these private bus operators have been evading legal action due to their proximity to officials in the RTO and the police. Having ignored the issue for a long time the government had ordered a crackdown on illegal bus operations after the matter was highlighted in the media.
It is learnt from sources that on hearing about the checking campaign many buses coming to Gwalior from Bhind, Morena, Datia and Shivpuri changed the route after abandoning the passengers on the road. A few instances of minor squabbles between the conductor and the passengers too were reported.
In some cases, the passengers were returned the fare amount and they had to make alternate arrangements to reach the city. With private bus operations affected in a major way, passengers had a tough time reaching their destinations.