Aimed at ending the monopolistic control over State transport, Punjab Government is all set to announce its much awaited new transport policy on Wednesday.
The new transport policy will be placed before the Council of Ministers in its meeting on Wednesday for approval, announced the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Tuesday. “There will be complete restructuring of the Transport Department. The post of District Transport Officers will be abolished and the sub-divisional magistrates (SDMs) will look after their work,” said the Chief Minister while sharing achievements of his Government on the completion of 100 days.
The new transport policy is aimed at cleaning up the State of illegally plying vehicles once and for all. It is expected that the policy would pave way for series of reforms to take the State’s beleaguered transport system out from loss and freeing it from the monopolistic shackles created by the previous SAD-BJP Government.
Capt Amarinder also announced that Rs 100 crore Road Safety Fund has been created to check the increasing incidents of road accidents. “It’s upon the DGP (Director General of Punjab) to implement it and maintain checks and balances,” he said.
In the recently concluded budget session, Capt Amarinder had made it clear that no bus would be allowed to ply illegally on the State’s roads. Already, the Government has launched a crackdown against such buses.
The policy was scheduled to place before the Cabinet in the previous meeting, but at that time, Capt Amarinder had ordered immediate removal of all illegal buses plying in the State from the roads.
The Chief Minister has also asked the Regional Transport Authority (RTA) and the State Vigilance Department to submit an action-taken report on the same. Capt Amarinder had already mooted an open-door policy for bus permits, except on the national highway routes, besides rationalising inter-state routes to make them more competitive.
In another step to eliminate the transport mafia, he had suggested permits to have registration numbers of buses mentioned thereon for plying. He also suggested to install GPS systems in all buses to ensure their effective tracking in order to prevent misuse of permits, which incidentally was rampant during the previous regime.
Capt Amarinder has already directed the concerned officials to explore the modalities for interstate route rationalisation. The department has decided to go for e-tendering on lucrative routes to make the business more viable and profitable, while providing a level-playing field to all players. The policy is aligned to the directives and observations of the Supreme Court and the Punjab and Haryana High Court, said the official.
Punjab bans truck unions
Notwithstanding mounting protest by over 100 truck unions in Punjab, the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Tuesday announced to ban the same. “The truck unions have been banned...there was too much of interference...they were pushing away the industries...there was a great hassle from their side,” said Capt Amarinder.
Justifying the move, Capt Amarinder said: “The decision was not taken off the cuff, but we already have two high court judgements which says that cartels be stopped.”
Only a day before, the Punjab Truck Union had announced to hold a protest rally against the Congress government’s decision to dissolve all the 134 truck unions in the state on July 6 at Patiala. In Punjab, there are approximately 93,000 truck operators, owing allegiance to different unions.