Order cancelling pvt firm’s bus permits stayed

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 3

In a setback for the Congress-led Punjab Government, the State Transport Appellate Tribunal has stayed the operation of the orders cancelling illegally extended bus permits of Jujhar Bus Service.

The next date of hearing has been fixed on November 10. The firm is one of the 340 private transport companies, including those owned by the Badal family, whose illegally extended bus permits were cancelled by the State Transport Commissioner.

A total of 806 illegally extended bus permits have been cancelled. Other transport companies are also also likely to approach the tribunal seeking same relief.

A senior official in the Transport Department said the termination orders had been stayed till November 10. “The department will contest the orders in the tribunal,” he said. The permits that were cancelled were being used to run ordinary buses, and not the super integral coaches.

Sources in the department said the cancellation orders affected near 1 lakh km distance being covered by transporters through illegally extended bus permits, including 30,000 km being covered by buses run by politically influential families. The Transport Department had initiated the process to scrap the illegally extended bus permits after a group of private bus operators withdrew 38 writ petitions in the Punjab and Haryana High Court against the government’s permit cancellation notices.

Lately, Transport Minister Amrinder Singh Raja Warring has been taking strict action against flouting of norms by private bus operators.