The association of Dehradun Mahanagar city buses has accused the city Police of acting whimsically by enforcing permanent route diversion of city buses. The president of the association, Vijay Vardhan Dandariyal said that the association had filed a Right to Information (RTI) and asked the police about the permanent route diversion of city buses undertaken by it. The police in response to the RTI maintained that the information required is not available with the department. " The RTI response clearly shows that the police are not authorized to undertake permanent route diversion of the city buses and it has got only a limited authority of diversion for a limited time period if some special situation arises,’’ he said.
Dandariyal said that the police should stop the practice of route diversion and allow the city buses to ply from the places mentioned in their permits. If it is not done within a time period of one week, the association would be forced to take shelter of court for violation of motor vehicles (MV) act.
The association has also charged the police of acting in partisan manner by providing the contract carriage vehicles like Vikrams, Tata Magics space for stoppages and terminals to these vehicles. The city buses operators blame police and transport department officials of working in collusion with contract carriage vehicles like Vikrams and providing illegal patronage. “These Vikrams and Tata 'Magic' vehicles are provided a permit of contract carriage which means they can do booking of the entire vehicle on contract and can not ferry retail passengers on selected routes but the corrupt officials of police and transport department are providing undue protection to these vehicles and imposing penalties on city buses which carry the permit of stage carriage,’’ said one agitated city bus owner.