Private buses killed 436 persons in two years, total death toll 737

CHANDIGARH: Even as many accidents by private bus operators in Punjab are not registered by police, the official figures of death due to accidents by buses are alarming. Total 737 persons had died in road accidents involving only buses, out of which 436 persons were killed by private buses.
Accordint to available records, private buses have done more road accidents than the state transport buses. According to a report in the last two years from May 2013 to May 2015 total 765 accidents were done by buses belonging to private companies and Public sector undertakings Punjab Roadways and PEPSU.
Out of 765 bus accidents, PEPSU and Punjab Roadways was involved in 214 road accidents and private buses were involved in 536 accidents. As many as 201 persons were killed and 267 were injured in two years by the government buses whereas private buses killed 436 people and injured 729 persons. The orbit buses were involved in 15 road accidents and killed 15 persons and 15 were injured.
In the home district of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal 52 road accidents took place and 11 of them were by roadways buses and in 40 accidents private buses were involved. In majority of cases, the transport companies didnt pay any compensation to the victims. This was due to media pressure that Sukhbir Singh Badal owner of Orbit buses was forced to make settlement with Arashdeep Kaur who was molested and killede by staff of Orbit bus in Moga.
The Moga incident involving Orbit bus service has opened the pandora’s box and many harsh facts are expected to surface during the hearing of case in the Punjab and Haryana High Court which has taken suo moto notice of molestation and murder of mior girl in Moga. The High Court has sought details of numjber of private and government buses and their route permits. The private transporters including Orbit were running many buses without the route permits.
The ill fated bus involved in Moga incident was also without the route permit. The other transport companies like Dabwali transport, Jujhar Bus Service, Libra bus service and many other buses run by political leaders are running many routes without permit. They are not only cheating the state government for road tax and passenger tax, they are also indulging in ‘gondagardi’ on roads. The illegal buses carry musclemen who misbehave with the pasengers and even throw them out of bus if passengers object to misbehaviour. This is road terrorism which the commuters in these buses are facing everyday. There are standing instructions to police not to inbterfere in such cases and also not to register any cases.