Parliamentary panel favours single authority for public transport in NCR

New Delhi: In the wake of the Delhi gangrape case, a Parliamentary panel is likely to recommend setting up of an umbrella organisation for public transport system in NCR so that responsibility can be fixed on a single agency if safety of passengers is compromised due to violation of rules. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport met on Wednesday for the third time to discuss safety of passengers in public transport in Delhi as well as the National Capital Territory Region (NCR) after the gruesome gangrape of a 23-year-old girl in December last.

The panel discussed issues like multiplicity of authority in framing and implementing laws relating to transport. "In Delhi, Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh (the NCR), several agencies are responsible for public transport in one way or the other. Delhi government frames laws on roads, but it is implemented by the traffic police which is under the Centre's control.

Besides the Road Transport Ministry, Urban Development Ministry provides funds under JNNURM to buy buses...there is clearly a multiplicity of authority," a member said after the meeting. He said since public transport was "nobody's baby, there is no vision for it."

The panel discussed issues like multiplicity of authority in framing and implementing laws relating to transport.

Members said that to avoid duplicity of authority, which allows agencies to "pass the buck", the committee is likely to recommend setting up of Metropolitan Mass Transport Authority which will be responsible for framing and executing policies for public transport in NCR. A few years ago, the Union Urban Development Ministry had proposed a similar "unified command", members pointed.

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