Nagpur: Peeved by the order by the state government to ‘break the chain’, most private bus operators in the state have decided to stop services from Friday.
On April 21, the state issued an order that private buses can ply between inter-district and inter-city only for emergency or essential services or valid reasons with 50% capacity. Essential services have been defined as medical emergencies or people attending funerals. Violations would invite a fine of Rs 10,000.
Secondly, the buses will have only two stoppages in cities and operator will have to put a stamp on the hand of alighting passengers for 14 days’ quarantine. Besides, local disaster management authority (DMA) may decide on a rapid antigen test (RAT) with the help of private labs and cost will have to be borne by the passenger.
“The order is ambiguous. How will you verify the emergency? Though it directly ban operation of buses, the order amounts to that. When there will be no passengers, why operate the buses and sustain losses? The operators are yet to come out of the shock of the first lockdown,” said Prasanna Patwardhan, president, Maharashtra Rajya Truck, Tempo, Tanker, Bus Vahatuk Mahasangh.
“The association has left the decision about running buses to the individual operator as the order doesn’t stop it completely,” Patwardhan added.
Mahendra Luley, president, Bus & Car Operators Confederation of India (BOCI), Maharashtra, said, “The order is such that you cannot choose between the two. There are at least 250 private buses operating to various destinations from Nagpur. Buses to MP and Chhattisgarh have already stopped last month. Some operations in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh were on but those too will be shut now.”
Even the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) officials are confused about following the stamping condition. Like specific direction to private operators to stamp passengers, the order is not clear whether a similar procedure has to be followed by the MSRTC.
“We have been told the job of stamping for 14-day quarantine will be done by the health and revenue department staff at check-posts and bus stops. They will also do thermal scanning and RAT, if needed. Those found positive will be sent to nearest quarantine centres for 14 days,” said divisional controller Nilesh Belsare.
“The state’s idea is to prevent unnecessary travel by people. With home quarantine threat, we don’t expect many people travelling. We are also going to cross-check whether the passengers are travelling for a genuine reason,” said Belsare.
Meanwhile, NMC has started screening railway passengers arriving from Goa, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Kerala, Uttarakhand, and Delhi. “On Wednesday, RAT was done on four passengers but they tested negative. On Thursday, two passengers tested negative. At least 1,400 passengers arrive via 17 trains from these six states that are being screened,” said railway officials.