Bus! Fed up villagers take on MSRTC

Tired of excuses and the vacuous silence emanating from the corporation, the Gram Panchayat finally wrote to the MSRTC on January 13, saying it would attach its property if it failed to pay the Rs 1.72 lakh due since 1996. With Rs 7.62 lakh collectively due from all its defaulters over the last five years, Sarpanch Abhimanyu Surve explains the panchayat’s outstandings were fast mounting.

With still no response forthcoming, angry panchayat office-bearers simply took a tractor to the MSRTC depot on March 31 and drove off with one of the corporation’s 97 buses. Then, determined to shift their protest into high gear, they took the bus (MH12-8533) in a “procession” through the village before parking it in the compound of the Narayangaon police station.

Smarting with embarassment and furious themselves, the MSRTC administration on April 4 dispatched a delegation from its Pune division to “hold parleys” with the triumphant Gram Panchayat. The delegation, comprising Traffic Inspector (Planning) S R Chaudhary, Personnel Officer S S Shinde and Junior Engineer (Planning) Vidya Bhalerao, had also contacted the deputy chief executive officer of the Pune Zilla Parishad, M L Waghmare, to seek his intervention to free the bus from the panchayat’s unyielding grip. But still the obstinate Gram Panchayat wouldn’t let go.

“They kept trying to pressurise us into releasing the bus on an understanding that they would pay the dues after the dispute is resolved,” says Village Development Officer (VDO) Anna Pachpute. “But we knew better than that. Even threats from a senior local politicians didn’t work as I had the unstinting support of the sarpanch and panchayat members.”

Moreover, he says, parading the bus around the village brought another surprise: several other property tax defaulters promptly queued up outside the panchayat office to pay their dues the same evening!

Waving a clutch of documents, Pachpute told Newsline that the MSRTC had tried to defer payment after the January notice was received by arguing that the property tax valuation was incorrect. Replying to the notice, Depot Manager U D Waghmare had said: “The valuation of our property is flawed and hence we will be unable to pay the monies till such a time as the dispute is resolved.”

But Sarpanch Abhimanyu Surve explains: “We were furious since they had themselves filled the form as early as October 1999 and submitted it to us saying that the property was worth Rs 50,59,285. It was on this basis that we calculated the property tax of Rs 1.72 lakh. Moreover, being a government undertaking, we waited till the end of the financial year before impounding the bus. Generally defaulters are allowed only 30 days.”

Evidently, the MSRTC’s defence was flawed for Waghmare now remarks: “We were compelled to give in at least for now because the reduction of even one bus from our fleet of 97 would affect operations hugely. We were suffering a loss of Rs 20,000 per day.”

Trying to smooth ruffled feathers, MSRTC Chairperson Ujwal Uke told Newsline: “I am aware of the Narayangaon incident. But it is strange that things came to such a pass. I shall inquire into the matter. If there are statutory dues, the MSRTC will pay them. Both the corporation and Gram Panchayat are state government institutions so if there was a difference in valuation, it needs to be sorted out across the table.”

Pointing to a possible motive behind the drama, an MSRTC official claims that the panchayat office-bearers have an axe to grind with the corporation as they have been allegedly shielding cartels of private transporters which have been gnawing away at the MSRTC’s revenues.

But as much as it hurts, every MSRTC bus leaving the Narayangaon depot now carries the tale of the village’s instant justice.