The passenger bus scheme rolled out with much fanfare in 2002 for the tribal youths, over one year after Jharkhand was created, is said to be on death bed.
“We do not have records of such buses,” said Tribal Welfare Commissioner Rajesh Kumar Sharma adding “so many years of passed since the scheme was launched.”
The scheme was launched by the then Welfare Minister Arjun Munda in the Babulal Marandi cabinet for the adivasis residing in districts under Tribal Sub Plan (TSP). Under the scheme the Welfare department had provided around 700 buses at subsidised rates to a group of 10 unemployed tribal youths who were entitled to operate the bus. The buses were bought at around `7 lakh a unit. “As far as I know the buses have gone off the street. They did operate on certain routes for a few years since launch,” said Papu Sharma, a bus agent at New Market, city’s oldest bus stop.
However, in the course of last 10 years the buses slowly went off the street leaving behind memories of such a vehicle. The buses have now become the biggest liability for the Welfare department and the Tribal Welfare Commissioner who is the de facto owner of these buses becomes a natural offender because of the ownership which still rests with the chair. The responsibility of paying taxes and accountability in case of an accident rests with the commissioner. “We are trying to change the ownership however considerable time has passed so we are experiencing difficulty in the process,” continued Sharma.
Interestingly, the Tribal Welfare Institute (TRI), in the year 2009, had conducted an evaluation survey to ascertain whether the scheme is bearing fruits or not. Although the survey pointed to the bad state of the scheme the department failed to take any measures to bring the scheme back on the track. “I don’t remember any action on the findings of the report,” maintained Sharma.
As per the survey report around 50 to 70 per cent groups were operating the buses with good results while the rest struggled to keep the scheme alive, confided sources in the TRI. “The report was submitted to the Commissioner of the department. What happened to the report after that is beyond my jurisdiction,” said former Director of TRI, PC Oraon.
According to sources, the report emphasised the inherent flaw in the scheme intended to improve the economic condition of the adivasis. The scheme lacked proper mechanism for monitoring buses’ operation besides the exorbitantly high subsidies (90 per cent) without any liability to return even a part of the amount which the government had spent on buying the vehicles. The scheme finally succumbed to the aspirations of a few people in the very group that was supposed to work together as a unit hence putting break on the buses forever.
“People in some groups started dominating others making them leave the group thus driving the scheme towards failure. Whatever happened is human,” explained Oraon suggesting lack of accountability to be the main reason for its failure.
Although the department launched the scheme it seems least interested in reviving the near dead scheme. “As of now we do not have any plans to put the scheme back on its course,” said Deputy Director Adivasi Welfare, RK Ranjan.