Chandigarh, 18 August
Reiterating the commitment of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to bring the Transport Department of Punjab back on the path of progress, the Finance, Planning, Excise and Taxation Minister Advocate Harpal Singh Cheema appealed to the various unions of the department to extend their wholehearted support to this mission.
During the meeting, the employee unions of Punjab Roadways and PRTC raised various issues including increase in the fleet of government buses, bus routes and regularization of the services of contractual employees.
Welcoming the unions’ demand for increase in the fleet of government buses, Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema said that efforts were being made by the Mann government to strengthen all the departments of the state besides making them profitable to create maximum job opportunities for the youth. He appealed the unions to cooperate with the government in creating check on corruption at the lower level for the betterment of the transport department. He said that the progress of the department would be the only solution to all their issues.
The finance minister said that the previous state governments were under the influence of the transport mafia and the policies adopted by them has put the department in financial crisis. He said that this government has not only started running government buses directly to Delhi Airport but it has also eliminated transport mafia to ensure that government buses run successfully on various routes in the state as well.
Harpal Singh Cheema directed the officials of the transport department to draft and share with him a note on the legitimate demands raised by the union which requires financial support. He said that the issue of regularizing the services pf contractual employees was also discussed in the meeting held on this issue yesterday, and the government was making sincere efforts to regularise the services of 36000 employees.
