The Transport Department, in a recent letter addressed to the Andhra Pradesh government, has stated that it wouldn’t be able to provide transport to the government of AP, which includes operating convoy vehicles for the chief minister, ministers and other VIPs in the state. The Transport department said that the government had to pay Rs 17.5 Crore dues to the department.
The Transport Department (TD) also provides the state government officials with vehicles during their tours to the districts of the state, where they interact with the people of the districts. The TD needs to arrange all of these vehicles on its own and has to sometimes borrow private vehicles when ti doesn’t have enough supply. Recently, when the TD tried procuring private vehicles in Ongole, the owners of the vehicles strongly protested against it, and the state government too supported the owners. Former CM Nara Chandrababu Naidu commented on the issue, questioning why the state government is spending more than it can afford.
On the other hand, the APSRTC, too, is in a similar situation, as when Naidu was the CM of AP, he produced two heavy vehicles from the department. One bus was used when Chandrababu shifted from Hyderabad to Vijayawada, and the other bus was purchased during his earlier term. These buses have now become white elephants to the APSRTC as Jagan is not using them. It is now to be seen whether or not Jagan would address these issues.