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Wed, 24 Jun, 2009,02:50 PM |
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Heated debate took place in the Assembly today following the allegation by former Transport Minister and AIADMK MLA Nattham Viswanathan that additional revenues from the department were being siphoned off which led to serious objections by the State Transport Minister K N Nehru resulting in verbal spat between the two. |
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Taking part in the debate on the demand for grants to Transport department in the House today, PMK member Ethiroli Manian said due to poor maintenance of government buses, people from the middle-class were hesitatant to use them.
Replying to this charge, Nehru said on a day nearly 25 lakh more people travelled in government-owned buses at present and further said only in the previous regime commuters would have stayed away from state-owned services due to poor maintenance.
Not willing to let go off this charge from Transport Minister, AIADMK MLA Viswanathan pointed out in the AIADMK regime all the corporations were being run on profitable basis.
‘Whereas the government claims in the last two years, it had incurred a loss of more than Rs 1,000 crore in running the transport corporations,’ he said and questioned where the additional revenues were being siphoned off.
Feeling angry over the remark of AIADMK MLA, Nehru said the former minister has ‘no right’ to talk on this subject for the latter had tried to privatise the State corporations across the districts by entering into bargains with interested buyers.
Nehru recalled the Chief Minister M Karunanidhi who was the then Opposition leader had categorically said that he would nationalise all bus routes which came under the privatisation idea of the then government, following which the plan was abandoned by the AIADMK regime.
Now the Transport department has been giving salary on time to its employees for their eight-hour per day work, more crew members have been added and bonus were being issued without any problem, all of which were a far cry from the sad state of affairs during the AIADMK government, Nehru charged. Moreover, the annual wage bill was raised to Rs 200 crore as more staff were being employed now leading to more expenditure for the Transport department.
But Viswanathan raised objections to some of the Minister’s statements leading to verbal duel between the two. When the AIADMK MLA persisted with his objections, Speaker R Avudaiyappan did not allow him to continue with his diatribe and brought an end to the debate. |
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