Govt, transport entrepreneurs agree to end syndicate in public transport

KATHMANUD, May 7: The government and transport entrepreneurs have reached a five-point agreement during a meeting held late evening on Sunday, ultimately ending the decades-long syndicate in public transport.

At a press conference organized here today by the Ministry, it was shared that the agreement was made to scrap the structure of syndicate of any type.

The consensus was forged during the talks held at Ministry on Sunday evening on presence of Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport Raghubir Mahaseth.

According to the agreement, the owner having single public vehicle can operate the service as per the prevailing law and a process for forming a probe commission will be stepped up to ensure well management of the transport sector adhering to the mandamus order of the apex court.

The Transport Entrepreneurs Joint Struggle Main Committee has agreed to withdraw its all protest programs. Another point of agreement is to form a taskforce to submit a report outlining recommendations for transport sector reforms within 30 days.

Speaking on the occasion, Minister Mahaseth lauded transport entrepreneurs’ cooperation in breaking the long-persisting syndicate.

“The transport sector will see reforms from tomorrow with the end of syndicate. Anyone can run their business within the framework of the existing laws. Further reforms will be taken ahead being based on the recommendations of the taskforce”, he noted.

Likewise, Federation Chairperson Yogendra Nath Karmacharya said that the entrepreneurs have been operating vehicles on rotation not on syndicate-based system. He claimed that no organizations associated to the Federation have been scrapped.

The Federation also declared that the vehicle owners would not bear the costs involved in the treatment of the injured of the road accidents from today as the bank accounts of the federation and transport organization have remained closed.

Though it was said to be an agreement, the five-point pact distributed in the press conference only has the signature of Ministry Spokesperson Rajendra Raj Sharma.

Federation of Nepali National Transport Entrepreneurs and its constituents, last week, had staged protest across the country disrupting the public transport in order to press the government to withdraw its decision to end monopoly in public transport sector.

Later the Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa, stating that the transport entrepreneurs had violated ban on strike on essential services, directed initiation of probe into the assets of agitating transport entrepreneurs, canceled route permits and froze 245 bank accounts of transport entrepreneurs and their committees.