Buses to be purchased with German assistance: Minister
The Hindu
‘Meeting convened with transport unions for finalising the 14th wage revision on May 12’
Transport Minister S.S. Sivasankar on Thursday informed the Assembly that the tender for purchasing new buses with financial assistance from KfW, the German State-owned development bank, would be finalised, and the new buses would hit the road shortly.
His department had also convened a meeting with the transport unions for finalising the 14th wage revision on May 12, the Minister said, while presenting the demands for grants for the department.
Earlier, Sulur MLA V.P. Kandasamy said an agreement was signed in September 2019 by then Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami to purchase the buses from Germany, but there had been no progress on it. In response, the Transport Minister said the project had been delayed due to some legal issues.
Mr. Sivasankar said the ‘historic announcement’ made by Chief Minister M.K. Stalin to allow women to travel free of cost in ‘ordinary board’ buses had created a social revolution, with women addressing it as the ‘Stalin bus’. Since the announcement of the decision in May last year, 106.34 crore women had travelled in the 7,321 ‘white board’ buses being operated out of a total fleet of 20,926 buses in the State, till April 30. This constituted 61.78% of the total number of passengers who travelled in ordinary buses.
Giving importance to women’s safety, the Transport department was taking steps to install CCTV cameras in 2,500 buses and 66 bus terminals of the Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC). The project was being executed as part of the Sustainable Development Goals, with the target year being 2030.
Other proposals being implemented under the SDGs include procurement of differently abled-friendly buses for operations in Chennai, purchasing of 500 electric buses in three cities and new diesel buses that are Bharat Stage VI-complaint, and commissioning of rooftop solar panels on the premises of State Transport Undertakings (STUs).
Based on requests received from various quarters for extending some bus services and resuming popular services which were stopped by the previous regime in the Chennai Metropolitan Area, the MTC has extended 25 routes, involving 36 buses, and resumed the operations of 105 buses on 53 routes. A total of 152 bus services have been extended and 394 buses have resumed operations in the period from May 2021 to March this year.
“We are judges and therefore, cannot act like Mughals of a bygone era ... the writ courts in the guise of doing justice cannot transcend the barriers of law,” the High Court of Karnataka observed while setting aside an order of a single judge, who in 2016 had extended the lease of a public premises allotted to a physically challenged person to 20 years contrary to 12-year period stipulated in the law.
The High Court of Karnataka on Monday declined to interfere, at present, in the investigation against a Bharatiya Janata Party worker, who is among the accused persons facing charges of circulating obscene clips, related to “morphed” images and videos clips related to Prajwal Revanna, former Hassan MP, in public domain through pen drives and other modes.
The 16th edition of Bhoomi Habba was held on June 8, at the Visthar campus. The festival drew a vibrant crowd who came together to celebrate eco-consciousness through a variety of engaging activities, creative workshops, panel discussions, interactive exhibits and performances, all centered around this year’s theme: “Save Water, Save Lives.”