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Private bus owners seek regulation of timings

Staff Reporter

BERHAMPUR: Private bus owners of Ganjam district have asked the Road Transport Department to regulate timing of buses starting from a particular destination to check undue competition of speed among them to reduce accidents.

At a press conference organised by the association, Bus Owners’ Association president Ramesh Jena said at present the department was issuing permits for 14 days to 35 days for some routes. As no efforts were made to keep time gap between two buses running on a particular route, the buses were in a race to grab passengers on the route. It was a major cause of accidents, he said.

The bus owners demanded that the department should fix timings for buses running on a particular route. They also objected to non-implementation of proper ticket system. Association legal adviser Sudhansu Panda said the transport department was yet to issue any official ticket system for private buses.

The passengers travelling in private buses either do not get any ticket or get a piece of small paper.

Dalits of Kushapalli village under Ganjam block of Ganjam district have opposed leasing out of a stone quarry near their village to the Gopalpur Ports Limited (GPL).

The district administration has leased out the stone quarry near Panibandha to the GPL to acquire raw material for its construction work.

The GPL is now in need of heavy amount of raw material for construction as it is transforming the seasonal port at Gopalpur to an all-weather mega port.

It is one of the stone quarries leased out to the GPL by the district administration.

But, over 60 dalit families of Kushapalli village are opposing the decision. According to them, if it is leased out, they will lose their source of livelihood. These families prepare domestic grinding stones and stone pots from the granite pieces cut out from this stone quarry for their living. Since several generations this stone quarry has been serving as their raw material source, they lamented. Against this background, the administration took the decision.

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