Shocked by rising number of cases involving rash driving and bad behavior by the City Bus staff, the City Buses Union has decided to implement a code of conduct for the bus operators from Thursday. The union claimed that code of conduct is part of a self-regulation drive and would be strictly implemented.
On the reports of public resentment against the rampaging city buses the transport department imposed penalties against large number of city buses last month.
The President of City Buses Union, V V Dandriyal told The Pioneer that the union in last few months was busy in its legal battle against the transport department and the Vikram operators. In the meantime some cases of rash driving and bad behavior by few drivers and conductors tarnished the image of the city buses. He said that from Thursday all the drivers and conductors would compulsorily wear a uniform so that their identity is clear. Dandriyal said that office
bearers of the union in a recent meeting were unanimous in the opinion that handful of the errant drivers and Conductors would not be allowed to defame the city buses.He said that the union is trying to give identity cards to all the drivers and conductors. “The drivers have been asked to refrain from over speeding and playing the music systems. The conductors would compulsorily give tickets to all passengers and would behave properly with them”,he said.
On being pointed about that the chief cause of over speeding is the penalty imposed by the union on the drivers of buses which are late on destinations, the President said that penalty is imposed to bring in discipline and prevent traffic congestions.
He accepted that some drivers do tend to wait for longer periods to collect passengers and then over speed to compensate the loss of time but added that the union would now take action on such drivers and inform the police and transport department about such incidences.
There are 250 city buses in Dehradun which are plying on 13 routes of the city. The city buses union and the Vikram union are pitted in a legal battle for taking up the lucrative market of city commuters. The city buses union is demanding that Vikrams are contract carriages and they should not be allowed to pickup individual commuters on the city routes. The Vikram association is trying to convert their contract carriage permits to the stage carriage permits.