Probe ordered into purchase of Marcopolo buses

Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy said on Sunday that he has written to Chief Secretary Kaushik Mukherjee to take steps for initiating an inquiry into the purchase of 142 “sub-standard” Tata Marcopolo air-conditioned buses by state transport corporations in 2009.

These buses, including 98 purchased by BMTC and 44 by KSRTC, under the JnNURM scheme, during the BJP regime were marred by technical faults and the State Cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah last week had decided to scrap them.

Speaking to reporters after garlanding the statue of Lal Bahadur Shastri in front of Vidhana Soudha on the occasion of the 49th death anniversary of the former prime minister, Reddy said that the nature of the inquiry and time frame for submitting a report would be decided soon.

The buses were found to have technical faults like low suspension, high decibel noise,  high smoke emission resulting in frequent break-down.  The buses were purchased at a cost of Rs 44 crore.

When his attention was drawn to the statements of several ministers on having a dalit chief minister, Reddy said that Siddaramaiah would complete his full tenure.

“They meant that a dalit chief minister should take over the reigns of power after the next Assembly elections”, Reddy said. Assembly elections are due in the state in May 2018.
DH News Service