The Hindu Business Line : Mindless Regulation?

The idea behind regulatory agencies is to ensure that private operators do not form cartels or resort to unfair business practices to gain mastery over the market to the detriment of the consumer.

But there are times when regulations tend to strangle the consumer and this is what this correspondent experienced while returning to the Capital after a brief vacation in the Kulu/Manali hills.

Alongside the Himachal Pradesh Government Tourism Department buses between Delhi-Manali, some private operators also ferry tourists to the hills.

When I used one such private tourist operator who has offices in Manali, Kulu and Delhi, little did I realise that I would soon be ruing my decision. While the onward journey was perfect, the return proved a nightmare.

As many as 35 passengers, who had booked with the private operator, began their journey from Manali on Tuesday evening.

When the bus reached Bilaspur in Himachal Pradesh, the vehicle was stopped by RTO officials who told us that the tour operator had neither a record of passengers nor issued valid tickets.

A few of us presented to the officials the slips with our names that the operator had given us before we boarded the bus. But the RTO officials were not convinced.

They said that the bus would not be allowed to proceed. It was 10 p.m., and all of us pleaded with the RTO officials that if indeed the tour operator had breached any law he should be proceeded against but that it was not fair to "punish" the 35 unsuspecting passengers, including seven foreigners.

After two hours of persuasion in the flinty night, a spare bus of the Himachal Road Development Corporation was arranged. It had no proper windows leave alone the push-back seats for which we had paid. The bus just about managed to reach Delhi, developing troubles twice en route. But our travails had not ended.

At the Delhi border, a row developed between the bus crew and the border officials. The bus was stopped at the Inter-State Bus Terminal in Old Delhi and not allowed to go up to Connaught Place where the private operator's bus would have dropped us.

While the RTO in Bilaspur may have done his duty in not allowing the bus to ply further because it was in default of valid procedures set for private tour operators, his disregard for the plight of passengers, including foreigners, was unacceptable.

Laws and regulations are no doubt meant to discipline erring parties, but surely not by ignoring human considerations.

Ultimately, the image of the State is at stake and if one of its arms — in this case the Bilsapur RTO — is unable to help the people it is supposed to serve — in this case, tourists who are potential spenders and "advertisers" — the government must wake up and put in place effective solutions to sensitise its officials.

G. Srinivasan

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