Haryana takes up transport issue with Delhi

Chandigarh, Nov 29 (UNI) After the UP-Delhi tussle over movement of inter-state buses, the Haryana government has taken up with the Delhi government the issue of alleged ''arbitrary challaning'' of Haryana Roadways buses by the Delhi Police for traffic violations.

Meanwhile, Haryana Chief Secretary Prashant today asked the Haryana Roadways employees to review their decision not to ply buses in Delhi on December 1.

''The state government has already taken up the matter with the Delhi Government to pass suitable instructions to the field officials to desist from exercising the challaning powers in an arbitrary manner,'' he said.

He said action would be taken against those who would indulge in stopping an essential service like public transport as that would not only cause inconvenience to the public, but also loss to the state exchequer.

He said that close scrutiny of challaning data revealed that contrary to claims by some employees, it was not a widespread phenomenon.

The Haryana Roadways daily operated 1780 trips to New Delhi and the average number of challans was one per day. ''That is not an unusual figure given the number of trips operated.'' Also, majority of challans were for overspeeding, wrong lane change/ or overtaking and the Haryana government could not encourage unsafe driving by its drivers, he added.

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