By Pervez Bari, TwoCircles.net
Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh state cabinet at it meeting chaired by the Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan here today took several important decisions to improve the public transport system in the state.
It was decided to de-nationalize the remaining 171 roads in the state. Three years back in February 2005, the state government had decided in principle to wind up the Madhya Pradesh Road Transport Corporation, (MPRTC). In the light of that decision, 510 out of 681 nationalized roads have already been deleted from the nationalized schemes and now only 171 nationalized roads are to be de-nationalized. The state government issued a notification in this regard on October 18, 2007.
Meanwhile, a Public Interest Litigation, (PIL), was also filed in the High Court, Jabalpur against this notification. As per an interim decision passed on this petition on October 14, 2007, the permits issued in favour of the MPRTC would be valid till final disposal of the petition.
Three-tier taxation system endorsed
The cabinet decided to replace the uniform taxation system prevailing on “A”, “B” and “C” category roads with a three-tier taxation system, with a view to improving the public transport system, especially in the rural areas. This would lead to increase in the number of buses as well as volume of revenue.
At present, on the “A”, ”B” and “C” category roads, tax at the rate of Rs. 160 per seat per month is realized from the buses on the first 100 km and Rs. 10 for every next ten km. Now under the three-tier taxation system on the “A” category i.e. nationalized roads, tax at the rate of Rs. 240 per seat per month is proposed to be realized from buses on the first 100 km and Rs. 15 on every next ten km. Similarly, on “C” category roads i.e. the remote routes in rural areas which connect a village to any nagar panchayat, nagar palika or municipal corporation and such nagar panchayat, nagar palika and municipal corporation where the buses make only one trip, tax at the rate of Rs. 120 per seat per month would be realized from buses on the first 100 km and Rs. five on every next ten km. Likewise, on the “B” category roads tax at the rate of Rs. 160 per seat per month would be realized from the buses on the first 100 km and Rs. ten on every next ten km.
With a view to improving the public transport system and operation of maximum possible number of buses in rural areas it would be made compulsory that if a bus operator is willing to ply a bus on “A” or “B” category roads along with rural areas in that case two third of the total length of route has to be in rural area. Besides, the bus operators who ply reserved buses would be required to pay the tax at the rate of Rs. 120 per seat per month on reserved buses.
Meanwhile, the cabinet decided to make arrangement of remaining funds required for liquidation of MPRTC. Besides, it was decided to pay the liabilities by putting to public auction the seized movable and immovable properties of the corporation. The immovable properties of the corporation were attached by the District Transport Officers against the outstanding tax dues of the state government.
At present, in addition to the bus stands, the corporation has under its possession the depots and workshops and residential and non-residential building premises in 30 districts of the state. The District Transport Officers would duly dispose off these properties at district level in exercise of their powers of tahasildar conferred on them under Land Revenue Code 1959. The department would be required to get these properties evaluated by a private evaluator. For evaluation of these properties at district level also, the district collector would seek a joint report from the public works department and district registrar. Subsequently, the departmental officers would duly sell the properties and deposit the proceeds in the government treasury after finalizing it following its verification by the district collector. ([email protected])