Cash-strapped PMPML pays more than Rs 9 crore to accident victims

Terming the compensation paid by PMPML as a necessary dissipation of public money for the rehabilitation of victims or their families,civic activists have sought strong measures to curb such accidents that in turn could help the transport utility in saving funds.

“The PMPML authorities should introspect on why they had to spend such a huge amount of money on compensation. If measures like effective drivers’ training programme and proper maintenance of buses,both its own and hired ones,are ensured,the transport utility can easily save on expenditure incurred under compensation,” civic activist Vivek Velankar said.

Another activist,Maj Gen SCN Jatar (Retd) of advocacy group Nagrik Chetna Manch that conducts training programmes for PMPML drivers besides carrying out other activities,said all accidents are preventable with proper training.

“The training programme should not only focus on drivers,but also on staff involved in maintenance of buses. Followed by this,there comes another important element — action against guilty. Legitimate action should be taken from bottom to top to set good precedent,” he said.

Speaking on the issue,PMPML managing director RN Joshi said efforts like training programmes and meditation workshops were underway on a sustained basis to bring down rate of accidents,and thereby ensure money shelled out for compensation is low as possible. “We have brought down the rate of fatalities to 0.9 per one lakh km journey of PMPML buses. We have even initiated special training programmes for drivers who are habitual offenders. These efforts are gradually bearing fruit and we hope the accident rate will be almost zero in the near future,” he said.

Among other issues,PMPML has,since its formation,failed to appoint on its board of directors three full-time expert directors on transport,finance and human resources. This is being considered as one of the key reasons behind the poor show.

However,Joshi said the decision to appoint these experts was the discretion of the state government,and delay has been on its part.