Public Vehicles dept to look into delay of permits, licenses

Kolkata: The Public Vehicles Department (PVD), Beltala, on Wednesday assured the taxi, bus and truck operators to review the reason of delay of issuance of permits and licenses.

"Today, the PVD officials conducted a meeting with us (taxi, bus and truck operators) in connection with Certificate of Fitness (CF), Road Tax penalty, delay of permit, delay in issuance of driving license, police harassment and other issues. The meeting was fruitful. We informed our problems and the officials assured us that they would soon resolve it," said Tapan Banerjee, joint secretary of the Joint Council of Bus Syndicate.

The meeting was conducted a week after the state Transport department further extended the time duration of 100 per cent waiver scheme on the penalty on tax on Motor Vehicle if the outstanding dues are paid within March 31, 2020.

In a similar initiative, the state Transport department has also decided to waive 50 per cent of the compound fee imposed on all types of motor vehicles violations under the Motor Vehicles Act, if the payment of the compounding fine is made within March 31.

"The state Transport department wants us to avail the maximum benefits of the one-time waiver of penalty on tax on Motor Vehicles Scheme," said Bimal Kumar Guha, general secretary of the Bengal Taxi Association.

"Earlier, we used to get the permit within a week. Nowadays, we are getting it after one-and-a-half-months. This is hampering our business because without a proper permit we cannot ply trucks," said Sajal Ghosh, general secretary of the Federation of West Bengal Truck Operators' Association. The bus, taxi and truck operators also claimed that police are unnecessarily harassing the drivers and collecting taxes despite the state Transport department's final nod to 100 per cent penalty waiver scheme.