In last days in power, the Badals move to enrich themselves through bus firms

Out of control

Over the past few years, the private bus empire of the Badal family has been in news for all the wrong reasons. The parliament had seen a logjam last year after a teenaged girl was crushed by a bus owned by a firm of Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal when she, along with her mother, was allegedly thrown off after being molested by the conductor, cleaner and one more person.

Buses operated by companies in which the Badals have stakes have also become notorious for rash driving and accidents, and their staff have often faced complaints of improper behaviour. There have even been reports of these private companies "hijacking" the passengers of state-run buses.

In Punjab, private buses, both in luxury and general segments, outnumber state-run buses by almost 100%. In stark contrast, the situation is the exact opposite in neighbouring Haryana, which has been running one of the most efficient public bus services in India.

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This is due in large part because in Punjab, nearly 70% of the private buses are owned by politicians, the Badals being the most dominant. The family has long been engaged in mergers and acquisitions of bus companies. As recently as June this year, the family reportedly acquired two more private transport firms based out of Hoshiarpur - Azad Hoshiarpur Express Bus Service and Rajdhani Transport Company Private Limited - inviting a strong reaction from Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh, who termed the acquisition "as a clear case of conflict of interest that betrays unbridled greed" on the part of the Badals.

"The Badals have acquired the entire fleet of their 120 buses. I doubt if there is any transport company left in Punjab that does not belong to the Badals," Amarinder said, adding that while such acquisitions were shown to be "normal business deals", the fact was that the Badals created a situation where the transport operators had no option but to sell off their business to the family.

"They have been doing it since the day they assumed power in 2007 and that is how their transport fleet increased 17-fold, from mere 30 to over 500 now," Amarinder said, pointing out that Punjab's roads are now flooded with buses owned by the Badal family.

Abuse of power?

The Congress leader described the latest move as a "clear case of abuse of power for personal business interests by the ruling family". "Which private transport company is left in Punjab other than of the Badals?" he asked.

"It is a clear case of conflict of interest," he said, adding that the Congress, if elected to power, will undo all such decisions.

The Aam Aadmi Party, too, came down heavily on the Akali regime for promoting private transporters "which would result in more profits to the Badals". Senior AAP leader Jarnail Singh accused it of plundering people towards the fag end of its tenure. "It is clear that fearing an electoral defeat, Badal and his associates have resorted to blindly looting the public. Today, the Badal family controls more than 60% of the private bus service. By changing the routes and time tables of the government-run buses, there is a move to profit private companies that include Orbit Aviation and Dabwali Transport as well as Azad Transporters and Rajdhani transporters, which were recently acquired by the Badals."

Jarnail too announced that if voted to power, AAP will immediately rescind any such decision.

Why does the Akali-BJP government want to change bus routes and timings? For the simple reason that in the transport business, profits are proportional to the number of kilometres the buses run.

Raj Kumar, a senior functionary in the Punjab Roadways Employees Union, noted that this was not the first time the government was resorting to such an anti-people measure. "The share of private transport to public transport now stands at 70:30. They are bent on finishing off our public transport system."

He said the public transport employees unions have called a meeting early next month to devise a strategy to counter the move. They will also discuss the regularisation of contractual employees in the public transport sector. Raj Kumar said there are around 1,750 Punjab Roadways contractual employees who have been working for a pittance for several years now. They get barely Rs 10,000 per month, and that's including allowances for working over time and on holidays.

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