THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With Transport Minister Antony Raju declining their demand to allot more time to comply with the uniform colour code rule for tourist buses, the contract carriage operators have decided to launch protest programmes. The Contract Carriage Operators Association (CCOA) will hold sit-in protests at the three zonal offices and head office of the motor vehicles department (MVD) on October 13 raising various demands. The operators are planning to approach the court challenging the MVD for imposing arbitrary rules on them in the name of enforcement.
“The government should not punish the whole bus industry for the activities of a few erring bus operators. The knee-jerk decisions are not practical to be complied with and it would affect the tourism sector as well,” said CCOA general secretary S Prasanthan.
On Tuesday, the association representatives met the transport minister with their demands. However, Antony Raju said the enforcement activities will be carried out strictly in the wake of the High Court order. The colour code mandates that the contract carriage vehicles should be painted in white with a 10cm wide violet ribbon and a metallic gold ribbon of 3 cm width above it at the centre of the exterior of the side body.Earlier, the contract carriages were allowed time to change the bus colour until the vehicle is produced for the next fitness certification.
“There are buses which have a valid fitness certificate for two years. There are not enough workshops if all buses are taken for repainting at once. Besides, the shortage of buses during the tour season will be a big blow to us as well as the tourism sector,” said Prasanthan.
The operators also opposed the move to fix the upper-speed limit of buses at 60 km per hour. They said the decision was discriminatory as KSRTC Swift was allowed a speed of 90 km per hour.“It will be difficu lt to shift to fourth gear with an upper-speed limit of 60 km per hour. The BS4 vehicles built under the Central government specifications have a built-in speed governor of 80 kmph. Such vehicles should be allowed to keep the factory settings,” said Prasanthan.
The minister tried to pacify the contract carriage owners by extending the deadline for paying the second quarter vehicle tax without fine to November 14.