Arunachal move will help TSRTC: Workers unions
except refunding the prebooking amount to passengers, followed by apologies,” he said.
Three major travel operators in TS and AP run buses registered in Arunachal — Orange Tours and Travels, Kesineni Travels and Morning Star. Nearly 100 small and medium travel operators also use these buses to avoid paying more for their permits.
An official from the TS transport department said Arunachal Pradesh has been providing incentives to tourist buses in order to encourage tourism in that state.
“Buses registered with the Arunachal government pay only `17,000 per annum for a national permit, whereas Telugu states are charging `3,500 per seat per annum, which is about 10 to 20 times higher. To avoid paying the higher permit fee, private travel companies are using Arunachal registered buses. That is causing a loss of `50 crore per annum to the APSRTC and about `1,000 crore to the TSRTC indirectly,” the transport official said.
TS transport department commissioner Sunil Sharma said that the government was seeking more information on the registration numbers of buses suspended by the Arunachal Government. “Once TS government gets the list of buses, we shall take action,” he said. Telangana RTC unions have requested the transport minister and commissioner to act against interstate buses registered with the Arunachal Pradesh transport department.
Telangana RTC Employees Union general secretary K. Raji Reddy said that they have been seeking action against these buses for the past one year.
“We have requested the government not to register the buses whose permits were cancelled by the Arunachal Pradesh Transport Department.”
He said that besides the MV Act, these buses are violating Rules 93 and 128 of the Central Motor Vehicle Rules.
He said RTC employees will launch protests if the government allows the registration of Arunachal buses in Telangana. “We are demanding that the RTC management operate the same number of buses on the regular routes of Arunachal buses in TS.”
MLA V Srinivas Goud, however, said that all buses plying illegally in Telangana will be stopped. “The private tourist bus operators mafia is acting against rules and laws. Why is the transport department issuing permissions to such private buses? Why is the private bus sector earning profits and RTC is in a loss?” he questioned.
He demanded that TSRTC run the same number of buses to AP as APSRTC does to TS. “The only way for TSRTC to make profits is operating more buses to AP,” he said.
In another development, TS transport minister P. Mahender Reddy directed all transport officials and staffs at border check posts to increase checking to identify Arunachal-registered buses. Scientists at the citybased Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology are working on the Apomixis method of seed production. Apomixis results to the formation of asexual seeds in plants that leads to uniform genetic population. This will help in improving production and eliminate spurious seeds. Farmers need not buy new hybrid seed for every crop planting season.
CCMB scientists led by Dr Imran Siddiqi who have been conducting research on this have got excellent results in plant breeding.
CCMB director Dr Rakesh Mishra said, “Farmers need not buy seeds from seed companies