A section of private bus and minibus operators has urged the state government to provide them 100 per cent advance payment before requisitioning their vehicles ahead of the civic polls in Kolkata on December 19.
Around 550 buses and 900 minibuses will be required to transport poll officials across the 144 wards of Kolkata.
In a letter to P. Ulaganathan, the district magistrate of South 24-Parganas, operators from four different unions, who came together on Wednesday, said for several years they had been providing buses and minibuses during elections but had always been “deprived” of their dues. Even this year, the dues — amounting to nearly Rs 9 lakh for a collective fleet of buses, minibuses and vehicles under contract carriage — for the service rendered under the jurisdiction of the district magistrate of South 24-Parganas have remained unpaid, the operators said.
“Kindly arrange to pay 100 per cent of the advance payment for our vehicles, which we will provide for the purpose of holding the elections,” the letter states.
Operators said they chose the district magistrate of South 24-Parganas to send the letter since he would also be the district election officer for the civic polls. A copy of the letter with the demands has been also forwarded to the regional transport officer (RTO) of Alipore, who will oversee requisitioning of vehicles for the polls.
“The authorities of South 24-Parganas have cleared 45 per cent of the outstanding amount for holding the Assembly elections this year to just about 20 per cent of the operators. The remaining 80 per cent has been left unpaid and that amounts close to Rs 9 lakh,” said Pradip Narayan Bose of the West Bengal Bus and Minibus Owners’ Association.
If this amount is left unpaid we will not provide staff for running buses and minibuses even if the vehicles were requisitioned.” Officials in the transport department said the operators were paid for their fuel at a fixed rate of 3.5km per litre of diesel for buses and 4.5km for minibuses.
“When we find that the amount spent on buying fuel is less than the distance travelled, then a certain amount is deducted. We will see if any of the operators have not received their valid dues,” said a senior official of the transport department.