00:00And now we bring you news from Tamil Nadu. It seems that a Tamil Nadu scheme and a very popular
00:05scheme is now under Scanner.
00:07There has been a plea filed in the High Court against the free bus travel which is provided to the
00:13women in Tamil Nadu
00:14which has been a big pull plan for many parties. The DMK government had started it but Vijay's government expanded
00:22it
00:23and it was presented to the women as something that is for their welfare but now this scheme is being
00:28challenged in the High Court
00:29because the private bus operators feel that it's going to impact them and they are asking for a stay on
00:35this free bus scheme.
00:37Now there are questions being asked by these private operators as to how the government is going to compensate them
00:45for their losses
00:45and they don't want that this scheme should be implemented statewide and the operators are claiming losses
00:54and that's why they've turned towards the court asking for the scheme to be scrapped.
00:59Joining us now is India Today's Pramod. Pramod, how exactly are the private bus operators getting impacted by this scheme
01:07and what are their pleas?
01:10Well, very clearly the petition states that the private bus operators would suffer losses due to the Retrie Parnam scheme
01:15which is one of the ambitious schemes of expansion of the DMK government's Mughal Parnam victim
01:20and that is they proposed to give up their business. The petitioner also has contended
01:24that not collecting fares from women passengers amounts to a violation of the constitution rights.
01:29Apparently, the private bus petitioner very specifically states that close to the annual expenditure
01:35for the Tamil Nadu government will go up to 6,000 crores and when it comes to Tamil Nadu,
01:40except for the metros, other locations everywhere government and the private bus also plays a very important role in transportation
01:47and now they claim that even though the Chief Minister has announced a scheme and it has been implemented,
01:52they claim that there is no government order so far and so until this case is being heard,
01:56that particular scheme needs to be suspended and they also claim that such a scheme
02:00would very vastly affect their business in Tamil Nadu.
02:04Right. Thank you very much for those details, Pramod.
