Two days after the Arunachal Pradesh government cancelled the permit of all buses that were registered with them, but not operating in their state, Vijayawada MP Kesineni Srinivas spoke up on the issue.
Stating that most officials in the Andhra Pradesh Road Transport Authority (RTA) were corrupt, the MP, also known as Nani, reportedly lashed out at them, for keeping mum on illegal registrations and issuance of fake fitness certificates.
“I raised the issue with transport officials many times and they failed to take action against them...In the capacity of MP, I approached RTA officials to make sure that there were no irregularities in the travel business. They failed to take action on such operators which has turned into a big scene now with Arunachal Pradesh cancelling 900 permits in one go," he was quoted as saying.
The move by the Arunachal Pradesh government follows several allegations by politicians and officials in Telangana and Andhra that there were several buses registered with Arunachal Pradesh, but were operating illegally in the Telugu states.
Earlier this week, the Arunachal Pradesh Transport Commissioner B Siram wrote two letters to all the District Transport Officers in the State, and said that such operators violated the Central Motor Vehicle Act, 1989.
He also cancelled the registration and permits of all such buses.
This also comes two months after Nani closed down the offices of Kesineni Travels, one of South India's largest private travel agencies, following a tiff with a bureaucrat in March.
The MP had taken the decision in protest, after a heated argument with state Transport Commissioner N Balasubramanyam.
At the time, he had alleged that a few operators had their vehicles registered in places like Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and even Puducherry, but operated them in Andhra and Telangana.
It was also reported that it was his 'pressure tactic' to down the shutters on Kesineni Travels that began an investigation into the alleged violations.