CHENNAI: A proposed amendment to Rule 288A of the Tamil Nadu Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989, which would allow State Transport Undertakings (STUs) to operate regular services on nationalised routes by leasing or hiring private buses, has triggered a combined online and offline protest by public transport users, disability rights activists and Left trade unions.
The Transport Department has placed the draft amendment in the public domain, inviting suggestions and objections until January 7. The proposal aims to amend an earlier provision that permitted the hiring of private buses by STUs only during emergencies, and to enable such arrangements regularly.
Public transport users, under a social media campaign titled "Ithu Ungal Soththu", have urged commuters to email their objections to the government. Campaign organisers said as of Monday, more than 1,000 people had already written to the authorities opposing the amendment that would allow private buses to be hired to operate services of the State transport corporations, including the MTC. Posts under the campaign warned that backdoor privatisation could derail the State's Vidiyal Payanam scheme, undermine social justice and weaken commitments to accessible public transit.
Disability rights groups have also flagged concerns. The Disability Rights Alliance, which has been campaigning for the introduction of disabled-friendly low-floor buses, posted on social media that the amendment "had better not be to bypass the low-floor or step-free entry bus accessibility mandate". It questioned why, beyond emergency use, the State could not at least double outright procurement of internal combustion engine buses when substantial funds were being invested in other transport infrastructure projects.
Parallelly, a joint forum of trade unions in the transport corporations, comprising CITU and AITUC, has begun an offline campaign, submitting petitions to leaders of political parties, including the ruling DMK, urging the State government to withdraw the proposed change.
In a memorandum, the unions pointed out that a similar Rule 288A was introduced in 2020, during the previous regime, with the stated objective of meeting temporary shortages. Since then, they alleged, the number of buses and workers in the transport corporations had steadily declined. While 23,078 buses were in operation in 2016-17, including spare buses, the current fleet stands at about 20,508 buses. The workforce has fallen from around 1.4 lakh employees to about 1.07 lakh.
According to the unions, the shrinking fleet has led to private buses being hired even during festival seasons, a practice that was earlier unnecessary as the corporations ran special services using their own resources. They also flagged the financial stress on the corporations, noting that about Rs 15 out of every Rs 100 of revenue collected goes towards interest payments on loans, taken due to the State not compensating losses incurred on socially necessary but unviable routes.