Chandigarh, February 24: Punjab Chief Minister CaptainAmarinder Singh on Wednesday announced an ‘Open-Ended Mini Bus Permit Policy’,with no deadline for rural youth to apply for such a permit, while layingfoundation stones of Rs 55.16 crore worth of high-tech State TransportDepartment institutes, including home delivery of driving licences.
The Chief Minister also virtually launched distribution of3000 mini bus permits for the rural youth to give a boost to the ‘Ghar GharRozgar te Karobar’ mission, with token presentation of permits to 5beneficiaries. He said that while 3000 permits were being handed over today,while another 8000 would follow through the rest of the year, taking the totalto be distributed by the end of the year to 11000, generating both direct andindirect employment.
Captain Amarinder directed the Transport Department tocreate a user-friendly online facility within the next three months for receiptand processing of applications of all bus permits to make the system far moretransparent and eliminate corruption.
These novel initiatives will go a long way in providingsmooth rural connectivity and seamless delivery of citizen centricservices, said the Chief Minister,lambasting the previous SAD-BJP regime for issuing illegal permits to chosenpeople without due publicity or adherence to legal procedures/rules.
Recalling that his government had promised cancellation ofall illegal bus permits to ensure that genuine people get the benefit of thescheme, Captain Amarinder said under the transparent system adopted by theTransport Department, a public notice for mini bus permits was issued for thefirst time ever in newspapers. People were encouraged to apply online withoutany hassle, and as many as 12,384 applications were received.
Congratulating Transport Minister Razia Sultana and theofficers of the department, Captain Amarinder said that they had set the ballrolling to achieve five-fold objective to create employment opportunity forrural youth, make travel safer for women and children, ensure vehicular trafficsafer for travellers and pedestrians, reduce vehicular pollution and door stepdelivery of government services. The fast-paced changes in technology, wheretransport had now reached the Mars, necessitated new initiatives, he said.,adding that Vehicle Location Tracking (GPS) Device Project, launched at a costof Rs.15.50 crore. would make travel safer for women and children in publictransport vehicles. He disclosed that 100% such devices had already beeninstalled in PUNBUS Buses and 50% in PRTC buses, which would be fully coveredin the next six months. Razia said the GPS system would be installed soon inprivate buses too.
The Chief Minister also referred to the state-of-the-artCommand Control Centre at State level and 4 Regional Centres to track thevehicles, and said this would facilitate handling of panic button alerts by anywoman/child, online challan for over-speeding vehicle without HSRP fitment,absence of valid insurance & Pollution certificate etc.
On the occasion, the Chief Minister also laid the foundationstone of the Institute of Driving and Traffic Research (IDTR) Kapurthala at acost of Rs. 22.50 crore under Mission ‘Ghar Ghar Rozgaar te Karobar’, withtraining capacity of 20,000 drivers annually to impart quality training torural youth, and thus generate employment avenues as skilled drivers within thecountry and abroad, besides creating qualified trainer base for drivers andinstructors of other training institutes. He said the instituted had beenplanned during his previous tenure and he was happy that it had been realisednow.
The upcoming training institute, to be managed by TataMotors, would be equipped with camera based Innovative Driving Testing System(IDTS) to assess the driving skills of the candidates. The institute, havingresidential accommodation for 75 participants, would also have drivingsimulators with motion/static platforms.
The Chief Minister also laid the foundation stone of VehicleInspection and Certification Centre, Kapurthala at a cost of Rs. 17.16 crorewith the aim to safeguard the passengers and pedestrians, besides reducingvehicular pollution. The Centre, with capacity to inspect 72,000 vehiclesannually, would test the road worthiness of vehicles before driving, amongother important features such as online appointment for vehicle testing,replacement of visual inspection with automated sensor based testing equipment,automatic inspection report after completion of inspection report without anyhuman intervention.
He pointed out that Punjab witnessed a gradual decline inparameter of road accidents per lakh population from 23.9 against nationalaverage of 36.9 in 2016 as compared to 21.7 and 34.9 respectively in 2018.Likewise, road deaths per lakh population in Punjab have also come down from11.6 against national average of 17.4 in 2016 to 11.3 against national averageof 16 in 2018.
While inaugurating home delivery of driving licenses andRegistration Certificates (RCs), the Chief Minister said that Punjab is thefirst state in the Country to implement this unique system. He stated that aCentralized Card Personalization Centre (CCPC) has been established atChandigarh, where all smart card based driving licenses and RCs would becentrally printed before being home delivered.
Earlier in his welcome address, Principal SecretaryTransport K Siva Parsad said the doorstep delivery would be instrumental inchecking corruption and elimination of illegal touts and agents. He said nowcitizens would no longer be required to visit transport offices to collectdocuments and this would ultimately decrease the work load in RegionalTransport Authorities (RTAs) and SDM offices.
PPCC president Sunil Jakhar termed today’s initiatives the
fulfillment of the party’s promise, and lauded the CaptainAmarinder government for the remarkable job done by it despite all odds. Transport was a major business and revenueearner for the state, extending from Amritsar to London to Mumbai, but in theprevious decade it had been taken over by the Badals, who monopolised thebusiness despite being custodians of the people’s faith, he said, underliningthe need to destroy the chain.
Prominent amongst others who were present on the occasionincluded; Member Parliament from Fatehgarh Sahib Dr. Amar Singh, Punjab YouthCongress Barinder Singh Dhillon, Industries & Commerce Minister Sunder ShamArora and Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs Minister Bharat BhushanAshu.