Patiala, September 12: The Pepsu Road Transport Corporation (PRTC) authorities and private transporters have locked horns over the issue of staff ticket, following which the PRTC decided to not allow any free-of-cost travel for the staff members of private buses.
Besides, they have directed its own staff to board only PRTC buses for travelling and in case they have to travel in private buses, they will have to purchase tickets.The issue started from the Budhlada depot when the conductor of a PRTC bus issued tickets to the staff members of a private bus.Later, the private bus operators also decided that they too would not allow the staff of PRTC buses to travel in their buses free of cost.
Earlier, the drivers and conductors of private and PRTC buses would travel free in all buses, but the authorities faced a lot of problem as there was no record of the staff of private buses.
This not only caused financial loss to the PRTC, but also caused a lot of confusion among private transporters as even the superannuated and expelled contractual staff of the PRTC had staff identity cards.
Now, the PRTC authorities have decided that they will issue fresh identity cards of different colours to all its current staff members to ascertain their identity and thus allow them free travel.Various unions of the PRTC even met the authorities urging them to roll back the decision claiming that the settlement between public and private transporters had been running for decades and this would cause strained relations but to no avail.
PRTC Managing Director Manjit Singh Narang said the decision had been taken keeping in mind the interest of the corporation. “We were suffering huge loses as there is no record of private employees. Besides, why should our staff travel in private buses when we have our own buses on all routes,” he added.
Meanwhile, a private transporter said it was unfortunate on part of the PRTC authorities as this move had spoiled the relations between the staff of private and PRTC buses.
News Source: http://www.tribuneindia.com
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