KOLKATA: Last month, Kolkata Traffic Police has detected 240 public vehicles — more than two-thirds of them being private buses and minibuses — that have permits that are no longer valid or are being misused to ply in routes other than those they have been allowed to. Some others were plying without any fitness certificate (CF).
Following these findings — several of them on EM Bypass — top cops have written to the state transport department secretary, urging his department to conduct surprise joint checks with them.
According to DC (Traffic) Arijit Sinha, all 25 traffic guards, along with the special raid section, have come across 151 cases where these vehicles were running “without permit or in contravention of the conditions of the permit”. “We have taken action against them under sections 66 (1) and 192A of the Motor Vehicles Act. Fitness certificates were missing in 89 cases. Action against them were taken under sections 56 and 192 of Motor Vehicles Act,” said Sinha.
“There are multiple other things too that are under our scanner. This includes frequent overtaking of buses, rash driving and picking up passengers randomly,” said an officer. Each day, claimed cops, at least 45-60 such erring buses have been prosecuted.
Bus owners claimed only a handful was indulging in malpractices. They stated that a few bus routes on the Bypass were the biggest headache. “The only issue is that papers were not renewed during the Covid times as RTO remained shut for a long time,” explained a bus owner whose bus plies on Bypass.
