Amid the ongoing tussle between the Haryana roadways employees' unions and private transport operators over the State carriage scheme 2016, the Manohar lal Khattar Government has chalked out 452 routes to grant permits for plying of private buses, under its new transport policy.
The new draft transport policy is likely to spell trouble for Haryana Government, which is already facing resentment of State roadways employees' unions over the issuance of permits to private operators on 273 routes in State carriage scheme 2016.
The State Cabinet during its informal routine meeting chaired by Chief Minister Manohar lal a day before has approved the new draft transport policy.
Under the previous policy 2016, 853 private buses were given permits for plying on 273 routes while the routes for private buses has now been increased to 452 to improve bus connectivity in rural areas of Haryana.
A senior official of Haryana Transport Department said the routes have been chalked out with an aim to improve the connectivity of public transport in rural areas of the State. Besides, the Government also wants to adjust 853 private operators which were given permits under previous stage carriage policy, he said. The decision of the State Government to add new routes to the draft transport policy has attracted sharp criticism from the roadways unions, who are now up in arms against the Government for privatisation of the roadways.
"The State Government has betrayed the roadways employee unions with its decision to increase routes for private bus operators to 452 from 273. While we were assured that the Government would not add more routes in the new draft policy, the Government is now going for privatisation of State roadways," alleged Haryana Roadways Workers Union leader Sarbat Singh Punia while talking to The Pioneer.
He said the decision of giving permits to private bus operators on 452 routes would pave way for total privatisation of passenger transport system in the State. Earlier, permits were given to 853 private buses but now, permits would be given to more than 1,000 private bus operators under the new draft policy, he added.
All the roadways employees' unions will oppose this decision of the Government and protest against it. A meeting has been convened to decide future course of action, Punia added.
The State-run carrier carries lakhs of passengers every day and operates more than 3500 buses across Haryana.
Protesting over the issue of giving permits to private buses under transport policy 2016, the roadways unions had observed one-day strike on June 13 across the State, which had caused inconvenience to lakhs of commuters besides loss of crores of rupees to the State exchequer. Earlier, Haryana roadways unions had observed four days strike in the month of April over the same issue.
Following their protest, the Government had agreed to scrap the state carriage scheme 2016 and bring a new policy.
On the other hand, the private bus operators had recently warned to approach the Court if the State Government fails to give permits to them under its new proposed state carriage scheme. Alleging that the State Government is succumbing to pressure due to roadways employees' strike, the private bus operators association had demanded that the government should bring new routes under its proposed policy, in addition to existing 273 routes for private operators, in public interest.
There is a huge shortage of transport buses with Haryana Roadways and against demand of 13000 buses, only 4200 buses are owned by the Haryana Roadways and around 800 buses are being plied by cooperative transport society, private transport operators had claimed.