The Hindu : Govt. awaits HC ruling on public hearing for bus privatisation

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jun 08, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Tamil Nadu

Govt. awaits HC ruling on public hearing for bus privatisation

By S. Vydhianathan

CHENNAI JUNE 7. The Government is firm on going ahead with partial privatisation of transport services. It is awaiting the Madras High Court ruling for conducting a public hearing, which has been temporarily stayed.

Once the stay is vacated, the Government will conduct the hearing, a statutory provision. After completing the formality, suggestions made at the hearing will be incorporated in the privatisation policy, according to official sources.

When it issued an order on privatisation last year, the Government fixed a December 2002 date, for the public hearing. But transport corporation unions got a stay and every time the case came up, for hearing, they got an adjournment. The unions have gone to the court seeking to stay all orders issued by the Government in connection with privatisation.

Now the sources express the hope that the stay will be vacated when the court meets after summer vacation.

After the public hearing, the Government will identify the routes to be privatised. Already a committee has been constituted for identification of routes for transfer from state undertakings to private operators through open tenders and to fix an upset price. The highest bidders will be given the routes.

The sources are confident that there will be a high demand even for the loss-making routes. For, they were not profitable because of the heavy overheads incurred by the corporations. In phases, 50 per cent of services on the high revenue earning routes will also be `auctioned' to the highest bidders. The money thus generated will be used for paying workers who opt for voluntary retirement. At present about 6,000 routes are operated by the corporations, with a fleet of about 16,800 buses.

Thanks to various measures adopted by the corporations, their finances have improved marginally. Some of them turned the corner after a long time. But that did not mean the Government would reconsider the partial privatisation scheme, said the sources.

Meanwhile, the corporation unions are planning another round of agitations. The Tamil Nadu State Transport Employees Federation is meeting in Tiruchi on June 10 to chalk out a course of action.

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