The Department of Transport decision to dole Rs 3 per km fuel to private bus operators under the Goa State Fuel Subsidy to private stage carriage operators 2014 due to their inability to participate in the passenger pass system is not justifiable. The Government is misusing its power by illegally doling out the tax payer’s money. The Goenkar commuter should be informed why such favour.
The Transport Dept. has not seriously implemented the ticket issue and failed to check overloading of buses by private operators. Why is the RTO not penalising the private bus operator? The Dept. accommodates the bus operator’s demands without any concrete proof of their losses, on which data the RTO director has considered this, did he depute the RTO officials to collect the commuters boarding these buses? Sadly the commuters are packed like sardines. The consumers are always treated like cattle.
The Government has assured the commuters that the ticket rates will not be hiked but such statements are nothing but fooling the public. The world over crude oil price are dropping how can you expect the ticket prices to be raised at this time around? The private bus operators should have been encouraged to form a cooperative society and the subsidy could have been worked out. The state owned transport system KTC continues to run in a loss since its inception none of the Chairman’s /MDs or Govt. are able to stop this loss making corporation recover but continue making big holes in the tax payer’s pockets while the private bus operators continue milky the commuters by getting the peak hour times on prime routes. We are hoping not to see situations like the poor farmers face in Maharashtra or Andhra Pradesh.
The commuters continue to be treated like second class citizens, no proper bus stops identified, no half ticket to senior citizens, no check on overloading and poor bus conditions are left for without giving any serious thought to it. I hope the Director of Transport will reconsider his proposal to the Government (Transport Minister) without making proper assessment of difficulties faced by the private bus operators and the commuters. Why should the tax payer’s money be doled out so easily? In turn no benefits are extended to the Goenkar commuter. Very soon the black and yellow taxi operators will also be demanding for some fuel subsidies as the women taxi (GTDC) and bus tours operators are eating into their business too. What next?
