From our bureau
CHANDIGARH, October 18: President All India Kisan Congress and Bholath MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira today asked the Punjab and Delhi Chief Ministers as why the buses operated by the Badal family still enjoyed the monopoly of picking and dropping passengers at the Terminal-3 of the Delhi airport while Pepsu Road Transport Corporation (PRTC) was denied the same facility.
Referring to denial of permission to PRTC buses to go up to the T-3 of the Delhi airport, Khaira asked both Bhagwant Mann and Arvind Kejriwal as why despite the Aam Aadmi Party government in both states, the government buses were being discriminated against to provide benefit to the private bus operators.
He reminded the two Chief Ministers about the pomp and show they displayed while starting government Volvo buses to ferry passengers to and from Punjab to Delhi airport. “Like all other programmes of your government, this one has also turned out to be a farce”, he told the government.
The Congress MLA pointed out that earlier, Kejriwal used to accuse the previous Akali and later Congress government of providing undue advantage to the Badals’ buses. “What stops you from undoing the wrong done to the Punjab government buses and the passengers?” he asked, while suspecting some quid pro quo in this scheme.
Khaira disclosed that while the PRTC buses were forced to stop 1.5 kms ahead of the Terminal-3, the departure and arrival point for most of the passengers from Punjab, the private buses were allowed to go right there and the Indo Canadian Bus Service owned by the Badals even has an office there.
The Congress MLA pointed out, the Delhi Airport Parking Services is under the control of the AAP government in Delhi. It is strange that the DAPS was not granting permission to PRTC buses for reasons not very difficult for anyone to guess.