In the wake of recent decision of Uttarakhand High Court on the issue of city transport, the Garhwal Commissioner CS Napchiyal chaired a meeting of the stake holders at his camp office here on Monday. In the meeting, Napchiyal asked the transport department to strictly adhere to the court’s orders.
The HC in its recent decision had directed the State Hovernment to ensure that the Contract Carriages like Vikram, TATA Magic and three wheelers are not used to pick individual commuters en route to the destination.
In the meeting the Regional Transport Officer (RTO) Dinesh Chandra Pathoi said that he has set up a three member committee to ensure implementation of HC orders. He claimed that the department would continue to take strict action against the violations of the permit.
The Garhwal commissioner said that the committee constituted by the RTO should finalise its report by August 5. The Vikram operators demanded that the status of Stage carriage should be given to them as they fulfill all
criteria.
The president of Vikram Jankalyan Sewa Samiti, Satish Sharma said that there are 794 Vikrams in the city which
are serving the citizens of the city and the transport department has stopped issuing
new permits for Vikrams
since 1998.
He said that large numbers of people are dependent on Vikrams for their employment and they should be provided the status of stage contract.
The president of the city bus union K K Dandriyal said that the Vikram and other operators like Tata Magic are openly violating the norms of the contract carriage permit and are picking individual passengers on the routes.
He said that the transport department is failing to take strict action against the Vikram operators. In the meeting the representatives of the TATA Magic operators also demanded that they too should be
provided the status of stage
carriage.
The operators also blamed the transport department for taking biased action against them in the recent drive. large numbers of Vikram and city buses operators were present outside the camp office of Commissioner during
the meeting.
The meeting was also attended by District Magistrate Chandresh Yadav, SP City Navneet Bhullar, ARTO R P Rathore and others.