Illegal bus operators thrive in city, mint money

Deepkamal Kaur
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, December 14

Taking advantage of the on and off railway services, certain illegal private bus operators have been raking in the moolah by running a parallel service from outside the bus stand.

Double-decker buses run by private companies have been daily ferrying 50-60 passengers from a parking lot on old GT Road near BMC Chowk. The buses have been mainly catering to the migrants from UP. From loading their baggage of clothes to pedestal fans, drums, sacks full of grains, cycles, crates and cots, tying up the stuff with carriers on the roofs, the operators have been allowing them to take along everything and anything.

Most buses ply from this parking lot in the afternoon and reach the destinations in a day or so. Radhe Sham, a migrant from Behraich, said, “This is the most convenient mode of travel these days. We just have to arrive here around 11 am and load our stuff. The bus moves around noon and next day I will be in my hometown.”

Not paying a penny as ADDA fee and not giving any taxes to the state, the bus operators have been charging anything from Rs1000 to Rs1200 for the trip to UP, depending on location. The bus operators are also telling migrants that Delhi does not fall in their routes and hence their journey is not affected. “We turn towards Uttarakhand from Karnal itself,” said an operator.

Such illegal buses to Rajasthan and other states also ply from Mota Singh Nagar market and near Skylark Chowk. However, the state transport authorities have turned a blind eye to the problem.

A question on this illegal transport system flourishing in the city posed to Vinni Mahajan, Chief Secretary Punjab, on Saturday did not usher any response.