A day after a 10-year-old girl was mowed down by a private bus, owned allegedly by a SAD leader, Punjab unit of Congress party came down heavily on the drivers of these vehicles saying they take "law unto themselves" and demanded these buses must be "grounded".
Reacting to the death of Gurpreet Kaur (10) of Dyalpura Village after being mowed down by a bus, owned allegedly by an Akali leader, PCC chief Amarinder Singh said, "as an immediate step all the (Akali-owned) buses must be grounded."
On December 11, another bus, owned allegedly by the same Akali leader, had crushed to death a 13-year-old Dalit girl, Arshdeep Kaur, at Channu village in Ferozepur.
"The drivers (must) be subjected to rigorous medical tests to find out why only they were causing so many fatal accidents, so frequently."
The drivers operating Akali-owned buses, including those by the Badals, were taking "law unto themselves", the Lok Sabha MP from Amritsar said.
"They don't give a damn to anyone including the police or the transport officials," he pointed out.
Nobody dares to check their documents to find out if they have valid driving licences, if they are visually, mentally and physically fit to drive, and how many of them are under the influence of alcohol and drugs while driving, he charged.
Besides, he said, the buses must also be checked whether they are in a condition to be driven on the roads.
"We cannot let them kill people so wantonly and then buy peace with the victims' kin," he said, adding, the lives of our people are too precious to be "bought" with money, without punishing the guilty.
Amarinder said all those drivers responsible for the accidents must be imprisoned and subjected to a thorough medical check up, as that can provide important clues to the reasons for such fatal mishaps.
While a private bus crushed a 10-year-old girl yesterday near Makhu on Amritsar-Zira highway, another bus of the same transporter mowed down a 13-year old girl on December 11 at Channu village in Ferozepur.
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Meanwhile, Aam Aadmi Party today said bus permit of any operator, whose vehicles are involved in more than two accidents, should be cancelled immediately.
In a statement issued here, AAP Punjab Convener Sucha Singh Chottepur demanded a minimum compensation of Rs 25 lakh to the family of victims.
A transparent transport policy should be formed and implemented under the directions of Punjab and Haryana High Court, the AAP leader said, "because ruling Badals will never frame such a policy as it is a conflict of interest issue."
He said this policy should keep in view the road widths, traffic density, peak hours congestion and cater for accident prone stretches.
"Analysing all these, a new speed limits for different stretches should be decided, and boards depicting these should be erected by PWD," he said.
In their greed to pick up maximum number of passengers, drivers run buses at high speed which sometimes lead to horrible accidents, he said.
"If we do a social analysis of these mishaps, it emerges that it is persons belonging to lower strata of society who are drivers on these buses and they are exploited by their transporters on the promise of bonus, sub-contracting, fixed daily amounts or continued employment, he said.
Those who get killed are invariably people of middle and lower classes who are either pedestrians or are driving two wheelers or cycles, he added.
