Transport mafia flourishing under protective patronage of government. :Amana Arora

Chandigarh, February 14

Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Sunam MLA Aman Arora said here on Wednesday that the Indo-Canadian AC bus service owned by the Badal family and other private operators were running their illegal trade under the protective patronage of the Captain Amarinder Singh Government, spinning over crores.

Arora told the House on the basis of documentary evidence that the Badal family was, under the contract carriage permit issued under section 73 of the Motor Vehicle Act was plying its high-end AC buses from Amritsar, Zirakpur, Mohali and other areas of Punjab to Delhi International airport, charging high fares, which, he said, was illegal.   

He further informed the House that if the  government had been a tad concerned about the people of the state, it could have initiated action against the Badals running illegal transport trade in the state, saying that under the Contract Carriage Permit, the Badals were fleecing the passengers at will< He alleged that the Act  permitted, neither picking and dropping of passengers on the way.  He said it was a blatant violation of the Act in place.

Arora conveyed through the speaker that if the chief minister was concerned about serious about nailing the illegal transport mafia, it should come out in the open and take stringent action against the erring Badals plying their buses covering 300 km from Amritsar to Ambala. In Delhi, he said, their buses run up to a maximum of 30 km. The Kejriwal government could not take action against them since it was under the suzerainty of LG, he said.

Arora leveled serious allegations on the government, that the Punjab government did not renewed the Reciprocal Agreement with the Delhi government since 2001 allowing inter-state bus service, to which transport minister failed to make an answer.