State transport minister Subhas Chakraborty is convinced that private cars, more than buses, are to blame for the blood on the streets of Calcutta.

“Why blame the buses? I have seen how private cars and motorcycles speed down Calcutta streets. So, to start with, we must increase the spot fines on private cars before penalising bus drivers. They should pay a higher penalty for road rule violations,” Chakraborty stressed on Wednesday.

The transport minister has got it wrong on two counts — of facts and of fairness.

The facts are borne out by figures, with the combined fatality count of buses (private, mini and state) this year reading 35, against the private car plus SUV count of nine.

A similar comparison in 2007 figures stands at 135 versus 34, and in 2006 figures at 157 versus 41 (see chart).

“The statistics tell the story in black and white. Private buses are the worst offenders. How can the minister claim that private cars are to blame for more accidents than buses?” demanded a senior police officer, on condition of anonymity.

The answer lies in the grey zone of political power play, with the minister reluctant to rein in the Citu-steered transport machinery. So, private cars are a soft target.

“It’s fine to raise the penalty for road-rule violations, but to slap a bigger penalty on private cars is against the basic tenets of punitive equality and fairness,” said a senior official of the state finance department, handling revenues from the transport wing.

“Such discrimination while implementing a new punitive measure must never be allowed,” added the official.

According to the traffic police department, the offence of the bus drivers is even greater because of the code of responsibility that they violate. “Drivers of public transport and large vehicles have a greater responsibility than those behind the wheel of private cars or taxis, as they are professional licence holders, as opposed to holders of non-professional licences,” said an officer in the traffic police department.

“So, if suddenly private car owners are forced to pay a greater fine for a similar violation, it could spark public outrage,” he warned.

Under fire from all quarters, the transport department on Friday took the first step towards setting up a committee with representatives from bus owners, workers and passengers. At a meeting with bus and mini-bus operators, minister Chakraborty said the committee could look into various aspects of public transportation, “including the number of buses plying on a specific routes and the amount that a bus owner has to invest vis-a-vis his returns”.

There was an on-the-spot consensus about the fitness certificate of vehicles involved in major accidents being cancelled immediately and retreaded tyres not being allowed to roll out.

There was, however, no consensus on the vital issue of the commission system, the root cause of racing buses.

“A similar committee was set up in 1990 when Shyamal Chakrabarty was the transport minister and nothing came of it,” observed Sadhan Das, the president of the Joint Committee of Bus Syndicate.