In a swift move, the Transport Department of the Andhra Pradesh government acted tough on TDP former MP J C Diwakar Reddy’s family-owned Diwakar Travels.
The government had cancelled the permits of 49 buses belonged to the Diwakar Travels for various irregularities and violations.
The Diwakar Travels, which operates stage carriers and contract carrier services in the State and the neighbouring states, was found holding invalid permits and duplicate insurance certificates.
The J C brothers – Diwakar Reddy and Prabhakar Reddy – are known for their excesses using political power to silence the officials of the transport department.
The travel’s buses were involved in several road accidents, including the one in 2017 near Nandigama in Krishna district, in which 11 passengers were killed.
However, using their political clout, the travels secured clean chit in the accident by then TDP government headed by Chandrababu Naidu.
Diwakar Reddy, who displays his political arrogance every time, particularly after the death of Y S Rajasekhar Reddy, had emerged as strong leader in the Rayalaseema region.
The transport officials never dared to touch his travel office or his buses and thus he was able to run multiple buses with single permit or without permit.
The RTA officials never dared to knock at his travel office doors and that was the clout he enjoyed for all these years.
Things are not the same for him in Jaganmohan Reddy’s government. The RTA now had seized 10 buses of the Diwakar Travels and cancelled the permits for all his 39 buses, giving him a shock of his life.