Himachal Pradesh Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) purchased ten 39-seater Volvo buses at a cost of Rs 9.30 crore between January 1, 2013 to March 3, 2015, Transport Minister G S Bali told the state assembly today.
Replying to a question by Rikhi Ram Kaundal (BJP), the minister said that all the purchases were done as per standard procedure.
When questioned about giving the purchase order to a single company without the permission of the cabinet, Bali said that only two companies had quoted for the supply of buses and one of the bids was rejected on technical grounds.
The Chief Minister told Suresh Bharadwaj (BJP) in a written reply that the state government was contemplating to make changes in rules and procedure for issuing permits to vehicles plying on sealed and restricted roads in Shimla town.
He said that in all, 1,177 permits were issued for sealed and restricted roads, out of which, 575 were issued by home department, 49 by Himachal Vidhan Sabha and 553 by the Deputy Commissioner Shimla.
Ravinder Singh Ravi (BJP) raised the issue of mysterious death of a doctor whose body was recovered from a well, through a calling attention motion and demanded expeditious probe into the matter.
The Chief Minister assured a speedy probe into the matter.
On October 15, a body was found floating in a well in Veru village. The victim was identified as Dr Rohit, son of Kuldeep Chand Sharma of village Bhati (Bankhandi) and no external injury was found on his body.
Chief minister said that the forensic teams and police inspected the spot and the report of forensic experts was awaited.
