The transport row has turned into a vocal slugfest pitting Vijayawada MP Kesineni Nani against private bus operators.
The MP, who also operated a fleet of buses under the ‘Kesineni Travels’ banner till recently, alleged gross violations by some private players and shut his business in protest saying he did not want to be part of a ‘corrupt’ transport system.
Responding to Mr. Nani’s allegations and the government decision to disallow erring private buses to operate, owners of the ‘blacklisted’ fleet of buses had come together to condemn what they called an ‘act of vengeance’ unleashed against them by the MP. The government should allow the private buses to operate, they said.
Sunil’s reply
Sunil Reddy, owner of the Orange Travels, which has been in the eye of the storm ever since the MP raised his pitch against the company, said it was not true that he was evading tax. Besides paying ₹20,000 towards vehicle registration, he had been paying a tax of ₹3,750 per seat once in three months. “There is no law that states a bus registered in other State can’t operate in another State as long as the operator pays taxes to the respective State governments,” he claimed.
Referring to vehicle overhang, which the MP had linked to the safety of passengers, Mr. Reddy said even some of the APSRTC buses had overhang.
“If you take some of the recent road accidents, all of them were involving seater buses. It is not right to link the overhang issue to road safety,” he reiterated and said a few buses belonging to the MP also had overhang.
Mr. Reddy was addressing a press conference called by the Private Travel Bus Association, on Saturday. He is the vice-president of the association.
Defending their shift from 1+1 seats to 2+1 seats model, the operators attributed it to ‘public demand’ and said since a facility to register such vehicles in the two Telugu-speaking States was not available, they had to go to other States.
Pointing out that the Centre was in favour of ‘common’ bus code, Mr. Reddy said a common all-India permit would soon solve most of these problems.
The bus operators said the government move would render over 7,000 people jobless and cause revenue losses worth ₹48.68 crore in the two Telugu-speaking States besides causing inconvenience to the public.
They said that in view of the stay order issued in Arunachal Pradesh, the Chandrababu Naidu government should allow the buses to operate until further court orders.
P. Srinivas of Morning Star buses and many others were present.