Govt buses few in Kolkata; taxi refusals rampant: Minister

West Bengal Transport Minister Madan Mitra today admitted that there were few government buses running in the metropolis and taxi refusals were rampant.
Mitra blamed the previous Left Front government for the few state buses available in the city while replying to the debate on demand for budgetary grants of the transport department in the Assembly.
When the previous government went out of power, only around 600 buses were roadworthy out of the 14,000 odd ones, he said.
The new government had repaired around 500 of them and purchased some, putting the number at 1,200 at present, Mitra said, adding that this number was little for the city as compared to the 38,000 buses run by private owners.

On taxi refusals, he said that this menace was rampant and growing.
He said that the state government was confident that this problem would be fixed within December 31 this year.
The state government had effected an operational merger among CTC, CSTC and West Bengal Surface Transport Corporation, he said.
The department was also giving VRS to staff of the state transport corporations.