The associations belonging to the city buses and Vikrams are at loggerheads over the issue of alleged illegal Vikram operation in the State Capital. On the allegation of city bus operators that 302 Vikrams illegally ply on city roads the association of Vikram operators has threatened to lodge a defamation case in the High Court.
The President of Vikram Jankalyan Sangharsh Samiti (VJSS), Satish Sharma said that the charge of city bus association that illegal Vikrams are running on the roads of city is false and amounts to sullying the reputation of Vikram operators. He said that the transport department in its recent drive had found no illegal Vikram on the roads of city. Sharma claimed that the registration numbers (of illegal Vikrams) provided by the City bus associations are actually the numbers of the two and four wheelers.
When contacted the President of City bus federation Vijay Vardhan Dandariyal stood by his claim of illegal Vikrams. He said that the Federation would provide concrete evidence of the illegal vehicles to the transport department. Dandariyal said that if no action is taken against these illegal Vikrams then the Federation would lodge a criminal case against these illegal vehicles.
On a Right to Information (RTI) application filed by Dandariyal the transport department had handed over a list of 774 Vikrams which are permitted to operate in the city. The Federation claimed that it conducted a survey of Vikrams which are actually running in the city which revealed that as many as 302 Vikrams ply in the city without clearance from the transport department.
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 city bus operators 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.