'Roof top travelling to cost transport operators permits'

Speaking after dedicating 50 buses for rural areas in the district here, he  directed the district administration, Police and Regional Transport Authority (RTA) to conduct a joint a operation to check rooftop travelling on buses as well as goods autorikshaws ferrying people. People should always travel in private or KSRTC buses for safety.

He admitted that the department is not in a position to  operate buses to several villages  in   the district as  most of the roads  have been nationalised. There is no provision in the rules for the State Transport Corporation to  operate the buses on such routes.

City bus service

The Minister said the department is planning to introduce city bus service in Mandya only after studying its pros and cons. A meeting of elected representatives of the district would be convened shortly to discuss the issue.

Ashoka said of 1,480 villages in the district, only 1,100 villages have bus services and the remaining villages are denied of this facility. The Mandya division has earned a profit of  ` four crore in the financial year 2009-10.

MLA M Srinivas who presided, demanded the minister to start city bus service, to give priority for the repair of PWD and Zilla Panchayat maintained roads and also to release funds for  completion of Mandya Institute of Medical Sciences (MIMS) building.

MLAs K B Chandrashekhar, Kalpana Siddaraju, Ashwath Narayan, MLC B Ramakrishna, Mysugar Chairman Nagarajappa and others were present.

Later, addressing a news conference, Ashoka denied that BJP has resorted to hate politics but only exposing the corrupt practices of the opposition Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) parties. The government is planning to release ` 142 crore for the modernisation of Hemavathy Canal. A decision to this effect would be taken in the next Cabinet meeting. This would benefit the farmers of K R Pet and K R Nagar taluks in Mandya and Mysore districts respectively. Besides, the government would release ` 20 crore for Maddur taluk to ease drinking water crisis.