G S Asgotra
Jammu, Oct 15: Despite the availability of two Regional Transport officers (RTOs) and four Assistant Regional Transport Officers (ARTO) of Motor Vehicle Department (MVD) besides a number of Traffic police officials manning Jammu-Kathua highway, the private bus operators have been blatantly violating all laid down norms. The rate lists which are mandatory to be pasted inside buses which should be visible to passengers but are concealed by maximum of bus operators, plying on Jammu-Kathua route while pressure horns are being used rampantly but no concrete action has been taken by law enforcement agencies. Even the Supreme Court of India has issued guidelines prohibiting use of pressure horns to curb the menace of noise pollution but all enforcement agencies are seemingly in deep slumber. Rahul Kumar, a passenger, informed Early Times that he had filed a complaint against a bus operator before RTO Kathua, who had concealed the rate list and had charged extra money from him. "I had boarded the bus from Chann Arorian and the conductor of bus charged Rs 20 as fair and when I asked him to show rate list, he started quarrelling and along with two associates threatened to teach me a lesson", he said, adding that the conductor even threatened to throw him out. He said when he threatened the conductor to file a complaint against him before RTO Kathua, he said the latter could do no harm to him. "Though I have lodged the complaint, any action is yet awaited," he added. A Jammu University student, who travels daily from Jammu to Kathua, told this correspondent that it was humiliating for them when the bus conductors "refuses to give concession in fare to students which is against the norms", he said. When contacted, ARTO Kathua, Mohammed Saleem said that yesterday they had penalized more than 100 bus operators, who were found violating the norms of MVD and also challaned the bus operator, against whom a complaint was filed. |
