‘Surajya Abhiyan’ demands revival of MSRTC’s ‘Helpline’

Follow up under ‘Surajya Abhiyan’ brings success : Deep Cleaning drive by MSRTC in Maharashtra

Mumbai – ‘Surajya Abhiyan’ under the aegis of Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS) had undertaken a campaign for clean bus-stands across the State. The continuous follow up by Surajya Abhiyan has achieved success as the State Government has taken its note and launched a drive named ‘Hindu-Rhiday-Samrat Balasaheb Thackeray Swachha Sundar Bus-sthanak’. The State Government has ordered the bus-depot managers to ‘deep-clean’ the bus-stands every fifteen days to maintain cleanliness.

We welcome this decision; but the communication system devised for passengers is ‘dead’ even today; although the bus-stands areas are becoming very clean; therefore, the clean bus-stand drive should not be limited to only cleaning of bus-stands but the ‘helpline’ of Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) should be revived too is our strong demand under ‘Surajya Abhiyan’, informed Mr Bhurkute.

Make arrangements to answer phones at inquiry counters at bus-stands – Surajya Abhiyan

Alert citizens submitting memorandum to Palus (Dist Sangli) depot’s administrator Mr Praveen Koli (extreme right)

Mr Abhishek Murkute, ‘Surajya Abhiyan’s Maharashtra State coordinator drew attention to another important point. He stated that MSRTC administration taking a positive step towards cleanliness of bus-stands is appreciated; however, there is nobody to man the inquiry counters at many bus-stands. The phones are either not answered or they are non-operational. Passengers, therefore, get no response when they want to enquire about the timings of the buses, changes or for lodging complaints.

Alert citizens submitting Surajya Abhiyan’s memorandum to Ishwarpur (Dist Sangli) depot’s administrator Mr Dilip Thombre

He further added that ‘Surajya Abhiyan’ took a note of complaints received from across the State and submitted memorandum to 21 depot managers including depots at Pune, Satara, Sangli, Kolhapur, Solapur, Sindhudurga, Nashik, Jalgaon, and Akola, on this issue. The Chief Minister’s secretariat and MSRTC administration have taken a serious note of the emails sent by ‘Surajya Abhiyan’ and ordered 31 regions in the State to immediately rectify the problems.

Only beautification of bus-stands is of no use if passengers are unable to contact MSRTC offices

Mr Murkute further added that we welcome the administration’s launching of ‘Hindu Hriday Samrat Balasaheb Thackeray Swachha and Sundar Bus-sthanak’ drive, taking note of our memorandum; however, this drive  is incomplete without an active ‘helpline’. What is the use of beautification if passengers are unable to contact MSRTC enquiry counters. As such, a rule to check the communication system should be made along with the cleanliness drive to be undertaken every fifteen days. It is our strong demand that if there is negligence in service audit, the concerned officers should get a negative remark in his service record.