Patna district magistrate Sanjay Kumar Singh (right) speaks to members of the old bus owners’ association at his janata darbar on Thursday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Patna, May 19: District magistrate Sanjay Kumar Singh today paid back the rowdy members of the old city bus service owners’ association in their own coin. They refused to follow the traffic rules for years. This morning, Singh refused to listen to their petition at his janata darbar.

The general secretary of the city bus service association, Umesh Prasad Singh, went to the district magistrate’s darbar today visibly worried over the success of the ring road bus service introduced this week. Their demand was separate stands for the fleet of the city bus service and the ring road bus service.

As soon as the district magistrate saw the application of the old bus service owners’ association, he said: “Oh! Now you people are feeling the heat. When you people created havoc in the city and troubled passengers without any reason, where were you? You people are responsible for half the traffic problem in the city. Now when you have a competitor, you people are opposing the service.”

Umesh pleaded: “Sir, just look at our application first.”

Singh sternly replied, “I have seen your application and I know what the problem is and who has created the problem. Till now, you were troubling others. After the successful launch of the new bus service, you people are worried. So, you have come to me to complain about it. I can’t do anything in this matter.”

Singh lost his cool when Umesh interrupted him and said: “Sir, why don’t to tell them (ring road buses) to park their buses at a different place? Else, provide us a separate bus stand. The existing one does not have enough space.”

In a stern reply, the district magistrate said: “Have you ever parked your buses in the bus stand? I have never seen that. You people park buses anywhere on the road. Your drivers stop on the middle of the road for passengers. They quarrel with common people without any reason on the middle of the road, triggering traffic jams. Your drivers never stop at bus stops. I have plenty of evidence to prove that you people are always on the wrong side of the law. Not even a single point goes in your favour.”

Singh said: “I am not going to entertain your petition at all because it is not genuine. Leave my office as soon as possible. You people never thought about the convenience of masses and if someone is doing the job properly, you are opposing it. This is not done.”

The old bus service owners’ association members left the office of the district magistrate angrily.

Bablu Kumar, a member of city bus service owners’ association, said: “We want separate bus stands for the ring road bus service. The frequency of BSRTC buses is not like us. In a nutshell, I must say that after the launch of the new bus service we are incurring loss. Nobody wants to travel in our buses.”