Bhubaneswar: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday alleged that Odisha government has handed over ownership of buses purchased from its fund under LAccMI scheme to private transport companies from outside the state.
Speaking to media persons in Bhubaneswar, BJP spoeksman Anil Biswal said the government had procured 1,745 buses to be run under its Location Accessible Multi-modal Initiative (LAccMI) across the state. The government provided around Rs 1,000 crore to the Odisha State Road Transport Corporation (OSRTC) for purchasing the buses. But the ownership of the buses is vested with some private agencies, engaged by the state government to manage the vehicles plying under the scheme, he added.
“The government is also providing Rs 80 to Rs 90 per 1 km as fare to the private agencies engaged to manage the buses. Thus the government is paying the entire fare for running the buses under LAccMI and charging fares from the people. If the government has spent the tax-payers’ money to procure the buses and paying the fare, why is it collecting the fares from the people?” the BJP leader asked.
He further said the Finance Minister had made a provision of Rs 100 crore towards procuring buses from private operators to facilitate transport in rural areas under the LAccMI scheme in the Budget 2023-24. “But the government did not hire buses from private owners. Rather, it spent around Rs 1,000 crore for purchasing new buses. Besides, the government has allocated Rs 1,000 crore more for LAccMI scheme in 2024-25 financial year,” he claimed.
Alleging a massive scam in operation of LAccMI scheme, the BJP leader suspected money laundering by some people with vested interests. He demanded investigation into the allegation by the Lokpal and Enforcement Directorate (ED).
