Prasenjit Deb
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Assam unit on Saturday alleged massive irregularities by the Assam State Transport Corporation (ASTC) in the name of selling of buses through auctions between 2017 to 2022.
Interestingly, most of the buses that were sold off were less than 10 years old, AAP leaders claimed.
AAP joint convener Jitul Deka during a press conference here in Guwahati claimed that the state government and certain officials of the road transport corporation of Assam are now involved in a massive scam amounting to more than ₹ 9.21 crore.
“ASTC has turned into a bus selling corporation rather than road transport corporation. It is indeed a concern that the state owned Transport Corporation which is already bearing a huge loss has now reached a new milestone by selling off as many as 666 buses since 2017-18 to 2022-23 through auction and had earned more than ₹9.21 crore. In the year 2017-18, ASTC sold 31 buses, in 2018-19, ASTC sold 209 buses, in 2019-2020, ASTC sold 108 buses, in 2021-22, ASTC sold 205 buses and in 2022-23, ASTC sold around 113 buses,” said Deka to the media.
Jitul Deka claimed that the irregularities have come to light at a time when the vehicle scrappage policy announced by the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways came into effect last year.
“As per the policy, the vehicle that belongs to the central and state government and is more than 15 years old will be scrapped; however, the buses under the state owned Transport Corporation were not even 10 years old. On the other hand, there are as many as 184 buses lying at the ASTC garage and are rotting due to lack of maintenance. May be the corporation will sell them off as scrap through auction in next one to two years,” added Deka.
He further stated that in the year 2016-17, ASTC bought 54 buses through the central and state funds, in 2017-18, 19 buses, and in 2019-20, 15 buses.
On the other hand, ASTC themselves purchased 69 buses in the year 2018-19, 40 buses in the year 2020-21 and 14 buses in the year 2021-22.
“If the corporation has sold off 666 buses in last 5 years, it means either the body is inefficient in running a transport corporation or maybe there is a lack of an efficient management or else the corporation is involved in a huge scam,” alleged Jitul Deka.
Meanwhile, the AAP leader has demanded an immediate probe into the issue raised by the party and urged the chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for his intervention and take action against the culprits.
