Bus accident near Kufri at Shimla left 45 dead. Only 4 people survived the accident. As reported in the media, the driver was changing CD in a moving bus and failed to negotiate a curve. It has also been reported that the driver did not have a license to drive the bus at all.
As a policy, music system is not allowed in buses in the state. Only the state run HRTC adheres to this rule. Private bus operators give a two hoot and almost all private buses have stereos. The music system is kept near to the driver who while driving the bus keeps on changing the CDs. There is another menace of talking on mobile phones while driving. Both these activities are recipe for disaster while driving and putting lives in danger of the traveling public.
Most of the private operators have contracted their buses to a third party. The permit of the route is in the name of one person and the person who is operating and driving the bus is a different one. Most of the time these people do not have valid driving license. The owner is simply interested in getting the monthly fixed amount from the operator. During marriage season, most of these buses are hired for ferrying the entire barat during night and in the morning, same driver takes the bus to Shimla, posing grave risk to the passengers as he hardly gets any rest.
Now comes the role of state government. Regional Transport Authority is responsible for issuing permits for the bus, issuing driving license and to keep an overall check on these buses and is supposed to keep a tab through the office of Regional Transport Officer. The office of the RTO is a hot bed of corruption. If one has the capacity to pay, one can get anything done from this office whether it is in the rule book or not.
Firstly, bus permits are issued on political consideration and the rest by accepting bribes. Secondly, bus timings are fixed such that all private buses leave before the state run HRTC buses on the same route. One has to first bribe for getting a bus route permit and then to change the bus timings. Third, the operators offer bribe on per month basis to keep the RTO away from checking the buses. The RTO never checks the bus papers, the driving license of the driver, whether he is in a uniform, the bus has a music system, whether any tickets are issued to the passengers or not. In short, people working in the RTO have all the fingers in ghee and head in karahi.
Postings at RTO are given to the ‘chosen’ ones of the government and the money such collected is shared at the top level. In such scenario, public safety is the least concern of the government and the operators. The government shows some concern for a few days after an accident occurs and once people forget about the whole incident, things are back to ‘normal’ after a couple of days.
The rot is in the RTO system of governance. Once this be cured their will be some sort of order on Himachal roads. Till then people will keep on dying in bus accidents.
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