Karnataka - Mangalore   

Private bus operators accused of violating norms

By Our Staff Correspondent

MANGALORE, JULY 18. The KSRTC Workers' Association has appealed to the Chief Minister, N. Dharam Singh, and the Transport Minister, Mallikarjun Kharge, to ensure that the KSRTC gets a level-playing field in Dakshina Kannada district.

In an appeal to the Ministers, Rathnakar Shriyan Kalmady, general secretary of the association, said that the Dakshina Kannada and Udupi district administrations had adopted a step-motherly attitude towards the KSRTC by curtailing its operational range and "unfairly" giving an advantage to private operators.

In a release, he noted that the minibus service between Mangalore and Udupi had not been allowed to be extended up to the Udupi bus stand, which had made the service less popular, though it was better and cheaper than what was being offered by the private operators.

The Udupi bus stand was the property of the Udupi City Municipal Council and the district administrations could not limit the KSRTC service to Udupi Taluk office, which was two kilometres away from the Udupi Central Bus Stand, he said.

Coming down heavily on what he termed the illegal ways of the private operators, Mr. Kalmady alleged that the private bus operators were misusing the amendment made to the Contract Carriages Act and were illegally carrying passengers from Mangalore to Udupi, picking them up and dropping them at various points between the two destinations. In fact, the bus operators were permitted only to pick up passengers from one point and drop them at another and they should maintain a list of passengers who boarded the bus at the starting point, he said. But the private bus operators were violating this, Mr. Kalmady said and urged the Government to take action in this regard.

In a separate press release, S.M. Gupta, president of the association, said that permitting single bus operators to operate between Mangalore-Udupi and other areas in Dakshina Kannada such as Mangalore-Sullia, Mangalore- B.C. Road-Dharmasthala, Mangalore-Puttur, Mangalore-Subramanya, Mangalore-Mysore, and Mangalore-Madikeri had unleashed terror on roads in Dakshina Kannada, Kodagu, Udupi, and Mysore.

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