Rajahmundry: Road transport authorities have booked nearly 150 cases against private bus operators for a series of violations including running buses without permit, transporting merchandise, collecting exorbitant fares in Godavari districts in the last four days.
There is a huge demand for private buses as a large number of people visit their home towns in Andhra Pradesh from Hyderabad to celebrate Sankranti. This has came as a boon to private operators who flouted a series of norms to transport people from Hyderabad to AP and vice versa from January 12, 13 and again January 15 and 16.
Major violations of the private bus operators include operating vehicles as stage carriers, despite having permits to operate contract carriages. A bus having contract carriage permit is supposed to transport people from point to point; in case passengers are allowed to either alight or board in between, it is considered as a state carrier and violates the norm.
Though a good number of buses have an all India permit some buses without it enter into AP from TS as they failed to pay relevant tax. The road transport authorities have found several such cases and seized five buses in East Godavari.
To avoid any inconvenience to the passengers, they did not seize the buses on their way to the destination. Some buses were found transporting unauthorised merchandise while some collected exorbitant fare from the passengers.
The RTA authorities maintain that as the passengers failed to give concrete evidence on the enhanced fare they had paid to the bus operator, they could not book more cases despite operators fleecing the passengers.
East Godavari deputy transport commissioner in-charge V. Siri Anand said, “We have found several violations in the private buses and some drivers did not even have valid licence. To avoid inconvenience to the passengers, vehicles were seized at the end point only and once the operators pay the relevant penalty, they will be released.”
West Godavari deputy transport commissioner S. Satyanarayana Murthy said, “We have found major violations in operating contract carriages as stage carriages and booked several cases on such buses.”
