BRAKE JOURNEY

Bhubaneswar, June 22: Subhakanta Swain wanted to see the rath yatra in Puri and had gone to the Master Canteen bus terminal to take a city bus to the temple town. But the engineering student from Ganga Nagar in Unit VI was in for a disappointment.

Dream Team Sahara (DTS), which runs the city bus service, had not arranged for extra buses to run between Bhubaneswar and Puri, which is 69km from here.

Many people were upset to find that unlike last year, when the city bus operators had pressed into service an extra 10 buses apart from the usual five that go to Puri, no such arrangements were made this time around.

More than 400 people came to the Master Canteen terminal yesterday to go to Puri for the rath yatra. But most of them had to return disappointed, as there were just five buses to Puri.

Mrutyunjay Tripathy, a resident of Soubhagya Nagar, had to take a train to Puri instead of the city bus.

“Last year, I had taken the city bus, as I was impressed with its service inside the city. But yesterday, there were no extra buses and many passengers had to stand because there were no seats available in the buses. I did not want to go to Puri in that manner,” he said.

A serpentine queue in front of Gundicha temple as devotees wait patiently for darshan of the Lord and His siblings during rath yatra in Puri on Friday. Picture by Rashbehari Das

Asked about the matter, the DTS authorities had a red-tape tale to tell.

“We had applied to the local road transport officer in Bhubaneswar for 12 extra buses for rath yatra. But at the last moment on Tuesday, he could not give us the permission and referred our case to the State Transport Authority. When the State Transport Authority could not do anything by Wednesday, we met the transport commissioner, but he could not help us either,” said an official of the city bus operators.

“The transport department wanted a resolution from the board of the Bhubaneswar Puri Transport Services Limited (BPTSL) and a recommendation from the housing and urban development secretary around 2pm on Wednesday. But as it was difficult to either called a board meeting or get a letter from the secretary concerned, the case was taken to the office of the Bhubaneswar mayor. However, all our efforts failed and the service operator could not get the permission,” another DTS official said.

Local road transport officer Lalmohan Sethi said: “In our office, all applications were processed and almost all vehicle owners who applied for the special licence were given permission, but for DTS it was difficult to give 12 more permits as their case is inter-zonal and only the State Transport Authority can give the permission”

However, DTS officials said the road transport officer had never asked them for more fees for special permits.