Chandigarh, October 17
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab spokesperson and RTI activist advocate Dinesh Chadha has sent proofs through a letter to Punjab Transport Minister Raja Warring that how the transport mafia of political leaders looted Punjab’s exchequer during the rule of Akali and the Congress government and how it was emptied. In a statement issued from the party headquarters here on Sunday, advocate Dinesh Chadha said he has stated in his letter to the Transport Minister that the bus permits issued by the Transport Department specify the limits of permits for government buses and private buses.
For example, in 1990, the quota for public and private permits on state highways was 50:50 percent. But since then, with the connivance of the Akali and the Congress government, the transport policy had been violated to issue permits to politicians beyond the private quota, he said. Chadha said that in order to abolish the government quota indirectly, the permits of private buses were increased five times and one permit was increased ten times.
Along with the letter, Chadha sent the list of bus permits of Orbit and New Deep Transport as evidence and informed the Transport Minister that Orbit’s 32 km route from Muktsar to Malout has been extended 6 times to 147 km till Moga, the 56 km route from Ferozepur to Muktsar has been extended 10 times to 147 km, the 190 km route from Raman to Ludhiana has been extended to 277 km till Jhugian Garhshankar, the 128 km route from Bathinda to Mansa has been extended to 254 km till Barnala and the 171 km route from Gurdaspur to Chandigarh has been extended to 271 km till Dera Baba Nanak. Similarly, Jaito Gidderbaha 100 km route of New Deep Bus has been made 328 km and Bathinda Mehma 138 km route has been made 237 km. He said that these were just a few examples of looting of public exchequer by making about 5,000 such illegal additions.
Dinesh Chadha said, “The Honorable High Court also made it clear in its December 2012 judgment that these illegal increases in permits to benefit private buses are bound to eliminate government buses. However, to date no action has been taken on these nearly 5,000 illegal permits and no action has been taken against the officials and leaders responsible for these permits.”
Advocate Chadha questioned in the letter that the tenure of the present Congress government is almost over but the looting is continuing. With this looting, while the rights of the unemployed of the state were robbed, the roadways were destroyed and the treasury was emptied; the law and court orders have also been flouted. Chadha demanded the Transport Minister Raja Warring to immediately revoke thousands of such permits and file cases against the officials and politicians responsible for this.
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