Centre orders all state transport departments to clean up bus stands
CHENNAI: Bus commuters across India may soon get relief from unhygienic toilets and overflowing garbage bins at bus stands.
In wake of the dwindling demand for public transportation, the Union government has directed the state transport undertakings (STU) to create standard mechanism to ensure cleanliness in government buses and bus stands.
In Tamil Nadu, patronage for government buses had fallen by 30 lakhs in the last two years. According to state transport policy documents and official statements, travellers in government buses in a day which stood at 2.1 crores till January 2018 had come down to 1.8 crores in March this year.
In an order issued two weeks ago, the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH) asked all States to take effective steps to boost public transportation to reduce the increasing share of private vehicles and consequent congestion, thereby reducing vehicle pollution.
“One of the ways to increase adoption of public transport system is to ensure efficiency of operations and pay adequate attention to cleanliness in buses and bus stands,” reads the order issued by Ajay Damle, Joint Secretary to Government of India issued to Tamil Nadu.
Even though buses are cleaned at bus stands at regular intervals, travellers face hardship mainly due to ill maintained public toilets. Besides stinking toilets, broken hand chairs and shelters and lack of drinking water supply adds to the woes of bus commuters.
Particularly, the Central and Chathiram bus stands in Tiruchy, Arappalayam, Periyar bus stands in Madurai, Gandhi Puram Central bus stand in Coimbatore and Tirunelveli junction bus stands have been known for its poorly maintained toilets. The hygiene quotient of bus stands at tourist and heritage towns are no different, rue commuters.
While urging the STUs to conduct special drive to increase the cleanliness at bus stands under Swachh Bharat Mission, the Centre has asked the transport departments to notify the standard operating procedures to all STUs for maintenance. “An independent audit to evaluate cleanliness to be undertaken to ensure that eco system for cleanliness is functional,” added the directive.
The transport officials said, “The Centre's direction being looked into and we are awaiting for policy level decisions from the government. Except a few, all the bus stands are being maintained by the respective local bodies. We have already been asked them to look into it.”
However, workers union said the commuters’ patronage to government buses had fallen due to multiple factors such as over-aged vehicles and shortage of man power. They alleged that 10 to 15 percent of the fleet of eight Transport Corporation had been taken off from the service in the last two years.
K.Natarajan, Treasurer of Labour Progressive Federation (LPF) said, “Every month about 25 to 30 workers and conductors retire. But no new workers have been added into the corporations in the last two years. Without sufficient manpower, state corporations may find it difficult to sustain for long,”