The Transport Minister
The name of Mr. Subhas Chakraborty, the minister in charge of transport and sports is frequently in the limelight, but always for the wrong reasons.
He has been known to be the mentor of the notorious ‘Hatkata Dilip’; he was known for harbouring criminals in the stadium which seems to be his personal fief. He is known as a friend of the building-promoters, particularly those who want to usurp government land and want to fill up water bodies, environment be damned! But he excels in his role as the transport minister.
He is a great friend of the bus-owners and the drivers and conductors. Whenever the price of petrol increases, he agrees to an increase in bus fares, but does not tell his friends to reduce fares when the petrol prices come down. He allows decrepit and dilapidated buses to ply on the streets of Kolkata; he allows buses to exude noxious fumes ( all that hullabaloo about pollution, again, be damned), and does not allow the very old buses in a ramshackle condition to be condemned; he allows the drivers with or without a license to drive buses causing accidents, allows racing and overtaking on the wrong side with devastating effects, like what happened on April 4 on the VIP Road, and plying on the wrong side of the road as shown in the picture on The Statesman( Kolkata Plus) (8 April). One may say that keeping the buses in check and to check that the driver and the passenger have seat-belts on, or that the riders on two-wheelers put on helmets are the duties of the police, but when these offending drivers are supported by the transport minister, the policemen can do precious little. These killer drivers get away with a small fine, and continue their killings. If the police confiscate their licenses, the Regional Transport Authority quickly issues a duplicate license
Last but not the least, all the five transport corporations under him are making losses and are being subsidized by the tax-payers’ money.
His latest feat is the refusal of funds for the restructuring of the loss-making transport corporations. The funds are being provided by the “Department of International Development”. He is opposing restructuring of the transport corporations citing “funds from imperialist forces” . Has anyone heard of anything more disgusting and hypocritical?
P.S. In spite of an High Court Order of July 2008, (i) the unregistered auto-rickshaws, (ii) the two-stroke auto-rickshaws and (iii) the carcinogenic smoke emitting katatel-using auto-rickshaws have not been removed from Kolkata roads. So much for rule of law in West Bengal.
He has been known to be the mentor of the notorious ‘Hatkata Dilip’; he was known for harbouring criminals in the stadium which seems to be his personal fief. He is known as a friend of the building-promoters, particularly those who want to usurp government land and want to fill up water bodies, environment be damned! But he excels in his role as the transport minister.
He is a great friend of the bus-owners and the drivers and conductors. Whenever the price of petrol increases, he agrees to an increase in bus fares, but does not tell his friends to reduce fares when the petrol prices come down. He allows decrepit and dilapidated buses to ply on the streets of Kolkata; he allows buses to exude noxious fumes ( all that hullabaloo about pollution, again, be damned), and does not allow the very old buses in a ramshackle condition to be condemned; he allows the drivers with or without a license to drive buses causing accidents, allows racing and overtaking on the wrong side with devastating effects, like what happened on April 4 on the VIP Road, and plying on the wrong side of the road as shown in the picture on The Statesman( Kolkata Plus) (8 April). One may say that keeping the buses in check and to check that the driver and the passenger have seat-belts on, or that the riders on two-wheelers put on helmets are the duties of the police, but when these offending drivers are supported by the transport minister, the policemen can do precious little. These killer drivers get away with a small fine, and continue their killings. If the police confiscate their licenses, the Regional Transport Authority quickly issues a duplicate license
Last but not the least, all the five transport corporations under him are making losses and are being subsidized by the tax-payers’ money.
His latest feat is the refusal of funds for the restructuring of the loss-making transport corporations. The funds are being provided by the “Department of International Development”. He is opposing restructuring of the transport corporations citing “funds from imperialist forces” . Has anyone heard of anything more disgusting and hypocritical?
P.S. In spite of an High Court Order of July 2008, (i) the unregistered auto-rickshaws, (ii) the two-stroke auto-rickshaws and (iii) the carcinogenic smoke emitting katatel-using auto-rickshaws have not been removed from Kolkata roads. So much for rule of law in West Bengal.
posted by SENsible at 7:27 pm
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