The State Government should divest the Home Department of the task of fixing parking fee for buses in terminals constructed and maintained by local bodies. This task must be given to the Department of Municipal Administration and Water Supply (MAWS) that has jurisdiction over local bodies such as corporations and municipalities, the Coimbatore Consumer Cause has said.
Arguing the case of the local bodies, secretary of the consumer welfare organisation K. Kathirmathiyon points out that the Coimbatore Corporation had constructed five bus stands, but the parking fee for the buses was still being fixed by the Home Department because the operation of vehicles came under the purview of the Regional Transport Office (RTO), which, in turn, was under the Home Department.
It was not the RTO that was tasked with the physical maintenance of the bus stands. The local bodies had to maintain the structure, provide basic amenities to the passengers and also keep the stands clean. The present fee for various categories of bus stands fetched only measly revenue for the local bodies. This hardly matched the huge expenditure involved in the maintenance of the terminals.
Official sources in the Coimbatore Corporation said the civic body was collecting Rs. 15 a bus a day at A class stands (the one at Singanallur and the Central Bus Stand at Gandhipuram).
An official said the new bus stand on Mettupalayam Road was a B class stand and the fee charged there was Rs. 12. It was Rs. 8 at Ukkadam (C class) and Rs. 5 at the Town Bus Stand at Gandhipuram (D class).
Notified
The fee being collected now was as per what the Government had fixed through the Home Department's order in 2001. It was notified in March 2002 after examining suggestions and objections.
Mr. Kathirmathiyon pointed out that the fee had been revised after more than 10 years. The earlier fee fixed in 1989 was Rs. 4 (A class), Rs. 3 (B class), Rs. 2 (C class) and Rs. 1.50 (D class).
The Government raised these rates by 50 per cent in 1993. But, the local bodies had not collected the fee at the revised rate. And, a Government Order issued in March 2000 cancelled the 1993 order. This led to the 1989 rates being continued with. The rates were increased by three to four times only in 2003. By then, the local bodies had lost substantial amount of revenue that would have helped them maintain the stands better.
Had the 1993 G.O. been implemented immediately, the local bodies would be making a much higher revenue than what they were getting now from the bus stands. The non-implementation and its withdrawal had a cascading effect on the revenue.
Mr. Kathirmathiyon said only the local bodies were in a position to know what fee rate could be viable for the upkeep of the terminals. Therefore, it would be only appropriate if the task of fee revision was given to the MAWS Department, which knew the requirements of the corporations and municipalities, he said.
