The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : RTA seizes private buses for violating norms; to step up drive

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Wednesday, Feb 20, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

RTA seizes private buses for violating norms; to step up drive

Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD: In raids spanning two days, special teams of the Transport Department checked 1,087 private buses and seized 180 buses for different violations.

The violations include sleeper buses having double berths after having taken permission to have only one berth on each side of the bus (17 buses), having extra seats and single berths (34) and use of passenger buses for carrying commercial goods (91), apart from 38 more buses for other types of violations including operators using fake permits.

At a press conference here on Tuesday, Transport Minister Kanna Lakshminarayana said Government was cracking the whip and that Transport Commissioner Poonam Malakondaiah and her team would not stop the drive until each and every private bus that touched any part of the State was inspected for compliance with Road Transport Authority (RTA) norms.

Interestingly, the drive was sparked off by a complaint lodged by a woman travelling by a private bus last week over the toll free number 1074 that she was forced to occupy a double berth with a male passenger in a private bus. That was the first of the raids that ultimately ended up with officials finding out 17 buses that had double the number of permitted berths. The Minister appealed to the public to patronise RTC.

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Andhra Pradesh