The President of city buses association, Vijay Vardhan Dandariyal has said that any decision regarding grant of new permits and new route plans for the State carriage vehicles by transport department would amount to contempt of court as the Uttarakhand High Court (HC) has issued a ban on issuance of stage carriage permits to three wheelers, Tempo and Tata Magic in an interim order dated September 9, 2014.
In a letter directed to the Chairman of the Regional Transport Authority (RTA), Dandariyal has said that HC has issued order on his petition which prohibits grant of stage carriage permits to Vikrams, tempos or Tata Magics. He said that the Regional Transport Officer (RTO) of Dehradun was informed about the decision of the court and any decision on granting stage carriage permits would amount to contempt of HC. Dandariyal also claimed said that a Right to Information (RTI) inquiry revealed that the department has given stage carriage permits to many (51) seven- eight seated Tata Magic vehicles recently on Premnagar route which is against the orders of the court and demanded that the these permits should be immediately cancelled.
The RTA in its recent meeting had discussed new routes for Vikrams and Tata magic vehicles and planned to grant stage carriage permits to them.
It is pertinent to mention here that on the issue of picking up individual customers on the routes of state capital the city bus and Vikram operators are in a state of perennial war. The association of city buses opposes any move to grant stage carriage permits to vehicles like Vikrams, Tata magic and Maximo. They are of the view that since the Vikrams are having the permit of Contract carriage they should not be allowed to pick individual commuters on the routes reserved for stage carriage.