After a wait of 21 days, city buses finally resumed their service on the roads of State capital on Monday. It was a moment of joy for both employees and commuters. Jharkhand Tourism Development Corporation (JTDC) which had pulled off from managing these buses declared to resume the service after the instructions of Chief Secretary Sudhir Kumar till December 31.
Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) will be given the responsibility of carrying out the management from January 1, 2015 onwards. Sources maintained that a delegation of city residents met Urban Development Secretary Ajoy Kumar Singh on September 6 on restarting of city buses for the convenience of commuters.
“We met the Urban Development Secretary and requested him to begin the city bus service soon. Also, we urged him to handover the managing charge to JTDC or RMC without making a change in the list of employees working for the transportation since 2010,” Jharkhand State Social Welfare Board Chairperson Pratibha Pandey said.
Meanwhile, the JTDC, which agreed to take charge as nodal agency on temporary basis, feels it is high time for RMC to think about their responsibility for city bus in terms of expenditure and bus maintenance. “We cannot continue spending money for the maintenance of city buses as it is supposed to be done by RMC. Every city’s municipal corporation is looking over the city bus management. We have to show our audit report wherein city bus expenditure is not within our limits. So, we agreed to begin the service on temporary basis,” JTDC Managing Director Sunil Kumar said.
RMC Mayor Asha lakra has decided to discuss the matter with her colleagues in the corporations’ board meeting scheduled on September 23.
The 250 employees including drivers and conductors feel RMC should maintain the deteriorating condition of the buses and their wages without any excuses. Manoj Kumar Mishra, a conductor assigned to watch the service from Dhurwa to Sujata chowk said, “Recently, we met RMC CEO Manoj Kumar recently and requested him to share our responsibilities as JTDC is suffering from manpower crunch regarding deployment of staffs for our management. Instead of understanding, he blamed us for the pathetic condition of the buses.”
However, commuters unable to commute in autos expressed joy over the service. “last month I lost my mobile phone while commuting in city bus. After, approaching the conductors, I got my lost phone. The case would not been same in autos. City buses are much safer,” said a student of Gossner College.