With PIL pending in HC, Diwakar Travels flaunts ‘clean chit’ in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh

VIJAYAWADA: It’s been a year now since the road accident that claimed 11 lives at Mullapadu village in Penuganchiprolu mandal of Krishna district took place. However, the Public Interest Litigation (PIL), challenging the final report submitted by the state’s Transport department to the State government, giving a clean chit to Diwakar Travels, which operated the bus involved in the accident, is still pending with the High Court.

Exactly one year ago, on February 28, 2017, the State woke up to the news of one Volvo bus belonging to Diwakar Travels, owned by Anantapur MP JC Diwakar Reddy’s brother JC Prabhakar Reddy, hitting the road divider and falling into a culvert near Mullapadu in Penuganchiprolu mandal, killing 11 passengers, including the driver of the bus and injuring others on board.

With the PIL pending with the HC, no action has been taken against the management of Diwakar Travels. Following the tragic incident, Sumita Dawra, State transport department principal secretary, in her final report submitted to the State government on 27 June, 2017, gave a clean chit to Diwakar Travels. The report found no fault of Diwakar Travels in the Volvo bus accident.

In the police interrogation that took place prior to filing of the Dawra report, police had confirmed that the bus driver fell asleep while driving the bus at a full speed and that resulted in the accident. But no one, sources in the know of the thing point out, was concerned about the negligence on the part of the travel operator, which failed to arrange ‘another’ driver - a reliever - required for long distance trips.
The transport department officials too blamed the bus driver for the mishap and said that all papers and other required documents of the bus were in order.

Challenging the Dawra report, one Hyderabad-based advocate KV Subba Reddy filed a PIL that questioned the basis of the clean chit given by transport officials to Diwakar Travels, whose bus was not registered under the Motor Transport Workers Act (MTW), 1961, with either Andhra Pradesh or Telangana. “The HC too questioned the State government and sought an explanation from the concerned departments’ principal secretaries. The PIL is pending in the HC,” said Subba Reddy.

Following the Dawra report, a bench comprising acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice T Rajani sought reasons from the State’s advocate general Dammalapati Srinivas for ignoring the Motor Transport Workers Act (MTW), 1961.

Though a case had been registered against the management of Diwakar Travels in connection with the accident, under sections 304 (a) (causing death by negligence), 337 (causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 338 (causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) of IPC, finally, it was the driver of the fateful bus, Adinarayana Reddy, who was blamed for the accident. “The investigation was focussed on only finding the condition of the bus, but not on the failure of the management of the travel company in providing a second driver on longer routes,” said a transport official on the condition of anonymity.

The Act and its violation
According to Motor Transport Workers Act (MTW), 1961, drivers should not get more than eight-hours-a-day or 48-hours-a-week duty
It also suggests provision of rest rooms for drivers so that they may take sufficient break after long hours of driving.
HC wondered why an IAS official would give clean chit to the firm with MP connection
This was, reportedly, not the first time that a Diwakar Travels bus was involved in a major accident
In October 2013, a multi-axle Volvo bus, travelling from Bengaluru to Hyderabad, had caught fire in Mahbubnagar district, killing 45 passengers travelling in it