JK State Road Transport Corporation, once a very prestigious organization with memorable history behind it, is now on the verge of extinction, thanks to those of its functionaries who perpetrated general loot in it and stifled it to death. 62% of its existing vehicles have outlived their age. In the year 1988-89, there were a total of 996 buses and 604 trucks in the fleet of the State Road Transport Corporation but at present the number has been reduced to 964 only. Of these, 610 are buses and 354 trucks. Normally, when a private entrepreneur purchases a bus or a truck and begins his transport career, in just 3-4 years, he is able to liquidate the bank loan and go in for the second vehicle. In a decade’s time, he is a rich millionaire with a fleet of couple of trucks or buses and provides employment to a number of workers in his concern. On the other hand, the SRTC purchases a new bus or truck and puts it on road service. The vehicle loses many of its important parts within three years and thereafter begins to become unworthy for plying on the road. In the words of a sadist its condition is that horn ke bagair sab kuchh bajta hai (except for the horn, every part is rattling). If the administration of the Corporation were honest and dedicated, and if the functionaries from clerk to the driver and conductor were honest and incorruptible, the Corporation would have been thriving today and become the largest transport corporation in the country. This was not to be and today we are very sadly witnessing the extinction of the Corporation.
Who is responsible for this sordid situation? There must be introspection at the level of the Government, Transport Department, SRTC and the employees. The onus of imminent extinction of the Corporation comes to the doorsteps of all of them. Everybody has contributed to the destruction of the Corporation one way or the other. The result is that the road transport industry has almost been monopolized by private sector because the public sector has been relegated to insignificance and irrelevance. We are unable to make any suggestive remark because we see no attempt by the Transport Department in setting its house in order. Allowing the private sector to establish monopoly over the transport industry in the state is fraught with some serious consequences. It enhances chances of corruption as well as intimidation. The Government cannot force private sector to ply buses and trucks on some specific routes, which according to them are not financially beneficial to them. All that we can say is that the Government must consider this important issue in all its aspects and find a solution to the tangle.
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