By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 27 Feb: State Transport Minister Chandan Ram Das held a review meeting with the officials of the Transport Department here today. On this occasion, he directed that, in addition to the 43 services of the Transport Department, which were earlier included under the Right to Services Act, 6 other services be included to ensure timely and transparent service delivery. He shared with the media that in view of simplification in the tax structure, the process of amending the rules for refund of online fees and green cess in place of entry cess is underway. He added that a draft of new safety policy for the prevention of accidents in hills which provides for measures such as fixing a speed limit, identification of accident prone areas as well as the process of installing crash barriers on priority basis in those areas is also underway. For capacity development of drivers, ITDR Jajra, Dehradun has provided training to 281 drivers in the current year and training of 500 more drivers is proposed soon. An amount of Rs 1 lakh has been sanctioned to each district for first responder training through SDRF /108 for quick help, so that immediate first aid can be provided at the time of accident. Apart from this, a security fund account has been opened in each division/sub-division.
Chandan Ramdas informed that a draft Driver Welfare Scheme has also been prepared for the arrangement of rest/food for the drivers/operators going on Chardham Yatra. An amendment is proposed to abolish the mandatory magisterial inquiry before the grant of compensation as well as to increase the amount to Rs 2 lakhs in case of accidents.
The transport minister said that in view of the inter-state transport rules, the fare for the vehicles of Uttarakhand Transport Corporation plying outside the state had not been increased in the past when the fares were revised for travel within the state. But now increase in the fare has been announced by the Uttar Pradesh government, therefore the Uttarakhand Government has also increased the fare of the buses plying outside the state.
It was also informed by the minister that a proposal for procurement of mobile fitness vehicles has been sent to the central government for use in the hills. An amount of around Rs 33 crores has been released by the Government of India for Tanakpur bus station.
Arvind Singh Hyanki, Secretary Transport, Rohit Meena, Managing Director, UTC Deepak Jain, General Manager, Transport Corporation and officers of Transport Department and Transport Corporation were present at the review meeting.
