Haryana Transport Minister Mange Ram Gupta today said it is not easy to run the state transport service in the Mewat region because of the miscreants who beat up the drivers and conductors plying buses in that area.

“No driver or conductor is ready to go there for duties,” he said, admitting that it is difficult to control the miscreants. He brought to notice the case of Nuh, where there are 42 buses but no staff to run them.

Responding to a question in the Assembly, Gupta charged “a powerful lobby of private operators” with disrupting the service in Mewat “as it hurts their interests”.

He also said that Gurgaon is not the only depot to suffer losses, but all the other depots were also in losses. “As such, we are not a profit-oriented department and there is a cumulative loss of Rs 150 crore at present,” he said.

In response to another question, Public Works Minister Captain Ajay Singh Yadav revealed that work on eight new roads, having a total length of 18.15 kilometres, is in progress in the state.