Politics of transport hits Asom govt

Guwahati, Jun 26 (UNI) The Congress-BPPF government in Asom today faced embarrassment exactly a month after assuming office when senior Congress leader Anjan Dutta hit back at Transport Minister Chandan Brahma of BPPF.

The bone of contention is Mr Brahma's public announcement that the Asom State Transport Corporation(ASTC) was incurring a loss of Rs one crore a month.

Mr Dutta, billed as the most successful minister of the previous Congress regime and credited for the ASTC's turnaround, found it too difficult to stomach. He chose today to hit back causing embarrassment on a day when both Congress and BPPF are meeting to find out a common name for their alliance.

Mr Dutta while addressing a news conference said that Mr Brahma's comment was not based on facts and the ASTC did make a turnaround during his regime. Mr Dutta's comment has assumed significance as Congress' internal politics is behind the episode.

He said the average monthly income of ASTC from its 70 on-road buses was about Rs. 0.20 crores against the monthly salary requirement of Rs. 2.20 crores. Concurrently the state government provided Non-Plan Budget Assistance for Rs. 10.40 crores during 2001-2002, still leaving a deficit of Rs. 13.60 crores in the salary component only. ''Nevertheless, the government initiated a host of measures to re-infuse fresh blood into the dying organisation with which the people of the state have deep sentiments.'' As part of long term revival measure, Voluntary Retirement Scheme(VRS) was mooted to pay out the excess employees and self Employment Scheme launched in 2001 to bring private bus operators under the ASTC umbrella thus utilising the extensive infrastructure base available.

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