The Kochi City Police have made police clearance mandatory for all employees of private inter-State contract carriages entering the city.
The move comes in the wake of the violent attack on a few passengers allegedly by employees of a private contract carriage, Suresh Kallada, after they reportedly questioned the delay on the part of the bus company in making alternative arrangements when the Bengaluru-bound bus, in which they were travelling, broke down midway at Haripad. The incident came to light after a passenger posted a video of the alleged attack on Facebook.
“Employees of all private contract carriages entering the city have been asked to produce clearance certificates vouching for their clean background from the respective police stations by April 25. Besides, they should sport name boards and display the duty pass in a manner visible to passengers,” S. Surendran, District Police Chief (Kochi City) told The Hindu .
Taking serious note of the incident, the Motor Vehicles Department (MVD) is also set to crack down on inter-State contract carriages post-election. Last week, a Puducherry-registered contract carriage was slapped with a fine of ₹1.83 lakh after it was found being operated in the city in violation of the conditions governing the issue of special permits.
“In reality, contract carriages are engaged in illegal stage carriage operations in violation of Section 88 (8) of the Motor Vehicles Act governing the issue of special permits. As per this, the special permit, which is valid for a week, issued to contract carriages is meant for the to and fro conveyance of the same set of passengers and hence they are not permitted to take bookings of fresh passengers at any point during that trip,” said K. Manoj Kumar, Regional Transport Officer (Enforcement), Ernakulam. However, this is observed more in the breach as they maintain the booking list of original passengers and not that of the fresh set of bookings later on, which can be easily verified by checking the identity of the passengers. The enforcement agencies, however, take a lenient view considering the gross mismatch between demand and supply for transportation facilities on routes such contract carriages operate. Hence, they are often booked for unauthorised transportation of cargo which is the other commonly made permit violation by them.
Contract carriages from Tamil Nadu and Puducherry enjoy tax exemption in Kerala, a benefit reciprocated to carriages operated from here to those States following a government-to-government understanding. Contract carriages operating from Karnataka are not eligible for such exemption. Sleeper carriages attract a tax of ₹1,000 per seat, semi-sleeper ₹750 per seat, and ordinary carriages attract ₹500 per seat. Contract carriages like Suresh Kallada, however, operate on all India permit valid for five years and pay a hefty quarterly tax, which comes to ₹1,000 per seat for sleeper class carriages, ₹750 for semi-sleeper, and ₹500 per seat for ordinary carriages. This considerable contribution to the State exchequer often prompts the State to overlook permit violations by them.
