3,062 private buses in Maha face action for flouting norms

Regional Transport Offices (RTO)in Maharashtra have taken action against more than 3,000private buses for alleged violation of safety rules and othernorms, a top government official said on Monday.

The private buses faced action during a 12-hour-longspecial drive launched by the transport department over thelast weekend.

State transport commissioner Avinash Dhakane,addressing a press conference at his office here, said hisdepartment has taken action against 3,062 private buses forviolation of safety rules and other norms.

Of these, 213 buses were detained during the specialdrive that was undertaken between Saturday evening and Sundaymorning, he said.

Dhakane said the drive was undertaken in the wake of abus accident in which the fitness certificate of the privatevehicle involved was found to have expired. The accident tookplace at Kashedi Ghat on the busy Mumbai-Goa highway recently.

The department is going to take such ''surprise checks''in the future, too, to ensure safety of passengers, he said.

According to Maharashtra Motor Vehicles Departmentofficials, they have issued memorandums (memos) to 3,062vehicles during the drive.

Of these, 213 vehicles are detained for variousviolations such expiry of fitness certificate, operatingwithout permit and non-payment of road tax, among others, theysaid.

The maximum detained vehicles were under the Thane RTOjurisdiction, they said, adding the department also seizedmany Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh registered buses plying inMaharashtra without proper passenger carriage permits.

Dhakane said they had maintained utmost secrecy aboutthe drive to make it effective and over 600 officers ofdifferent ranks participated in the operation.

The department had arranged state transport buses toferry passengers in case private vehicles in which they weretravelling were detained for violating safety rules, he said.

Maharashtra has 50 Regional Transport Offices.

''The most important objective of the drive was tocheck if buses were fit for ferrying passengers. The otherpurposes included to find out if they have paid taxes,'' thestate transport commissioner said.

''Thousands of passengers travel on these buses andhence taking care of their safety is our responsibility,''Dhakane said.

However, private bus operators claimed the departmentconducted the special drive by flouting Motor Vehicles Actprovisions about not checking buses between sunset and sunriseto avoid inconvenience to passengers.

Therefore, they have written to Chief Minister UddhavThackeray and Transport Minister Anil Parab highlighting theissue and listing their grievances.

Dhakane, however, refuted their claim and said mostbuses on inter-city routes start journey in the night andreach their destination early in the morning.

''Does it mean we should not check any bus plying inthe night despite violation of norms related to passengersafety?'' he asked.