The YSR Congress party government headed by chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy is not leaving any opportunity to target erring leaders of opposition parties, particularly the Telugu Desam Party, who were habituated to blatant violation of rules during the Chandrababu Naidu regime.
On Tuesday, the Andhra Pradesh Road Transport Authority (RTA) officials swooped on Diwakar Travels, a private transport service owned by senior Telugu Desam Party leader and former Anantapur MP J C Diwakar Reddy and his family.
They seized as many as six buses belonging to the travels which were being operated against the rules. The seized buses were shifted to the RTA office in Anantapur town.
Interestingly, it was only three days ago that the RTA authorities released the buses belonging to Diwakar Travels following a high court order. But the same buses were seized once again by the authorities on Tuesday on the pretext of illegal transport without valid permits.
The latest raids followed Diwakar Reddy’s aggressive comments stating that he would make the police officers lick his boots if the TDP came back to power in the next elections.
In October, too, the RTA authorities conducted a series of raids on his transport company and seized as many as 23 buses being operated without valid permits and licences.
The authorities also cancelled the permits of other buses which were being run as inter-state stage carriers.
It was found that Diwakar Travels had been running more buses than the permitted numbers, carrying more passengers in each bus than the capacity and collecting more fares than the prescribed rates.
The authorities booked cases against the company under the Motor Vehicles Act.