GANDHINAGAR, Jan 19: Cutting across factional affiliations within the party, BJP MLAs from Surat have strongly represented to Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel against police commissioner Kuldip Sharma's "arbitrary" ban on private luxury buses from the city. In fact, Water Supply Minister Narottam Patel, the minister in-charge of Surat, joined the issue with Minister of State for Home Haren Pandya today and asked him to direct Sharma to lift the ban immediately.The MLAs complained that hundreds of passengers coming to Surat from elsewhere in the State daily were put to a great deal of hardship due to Sharma's "arbitrary" decision.
Dubbing the decision as "Taghlaqi", MLA Atmaram Parmar complained that Sharma, on the pretext of maintaining smooth traffic, had ordered that private buses, mainly from Saurashtra and Kutch, should stop outside the octroi check-posts and offload the passengers there.
As a result, hundreds of passengers have to dole out between Rs 100 and Rs 150 as autorickshaw fare to reach their far-flung destinations in Surat, another MLA rued, adding nearly 500 private buses reach Surat daily, especially in early hours.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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