From A Correspondent
SHILLONG, March 1: The Meghalaya unit of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) today said that buses procured from the central government under the Jawaharlal Nehru tiol Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) were of substandard quality since quite a number of them have already broke down.
According to the secretary of the Legal Cell of the AAP, Peter Dohkrut, in reply to their RTI queries the Meghalaya Urban Development Agency (MUDA) stated that in the first phase the state received 120 buses under the JNNURM out of which 19 are damaged.
“The reply to our query on the number of damaged buses is not true since during one of our inspections made in stockyard in Mawkynroh area of Mawlai, we found out that there are more than 30 buses and maxi-cabs have are completely damaged,” the secretary of the AAP Legal Cell said. The AAP members pointed out that from what they saw it would be difficult to imagine that those vehicles can be repaired.
According to Dohkrut, authorities claim that these buses can be repaired.
Dohkrut informed that prior to procuring these JNNURM buses from the Centre, a memorandum of agreement (MOA) was signed on June 6, 2007 between the Union ministry of urban development and the state urban affairs department.
The MoA clearly stated that such buses can be condemned after running for nine years or if it has covered a distance of around 9 lakhs km.
“However, with the nine years mark yet to be been crossed we see many of these buses already being taken off the road, since they are damaged,” he said.
He also claimed that there are many damaged buses in the various depots spread across the city. Meanwhile, on the query of these buses plying on the city roads not paying taxes or insurance, the authorities replied that these vehicles were not meant for generating revenue for the state but for easy and comfortable transport for the public. It may be mentioned that, in the first phase in 2010, Meghalaya received 120 buses and later on another 136 buses during the second phase in 2015 under JNNURM.