Bengaluru: Transport Minister, H M Revanna denied on Thursday that the government had cleared a proposal for letting vehicles use security number plates in Karnataka as claimed by state Janata Dal (Secular) president H D Kumaraswamy. Speaking to reporters here, Mr Revanna also denied that any decision had been taken on buying speed governors for government vehicles. “I will not make any more comment on the allegations made by the former Chief Minister. He should have cross checked his facts before levelling such charges. The security number plate issue has been around for the last 14 years and the Supreme Court had ruled in favour of it. But the modalities have not been worked out since. At the moment, there is no proposal before the government to clear the project and nor has any company approached us. So there is no question of signing any proposal,” he said.
As for rumours about the government considering buying speed governors from two companies, he explained it had floated a global tender for them and of the 10 firms that came forward, only two qualified for supplying them. Other contenders went to court, which ruled in favour of the government. But no decision had been taken as yet on buying speed governors from the two companies as the prices still had to be negotiated, the minister said.
Asked about introduction of electric buses on city roads, Mr Revanna said it was still only a proposal. “We will have to make a lot of arrangements before running them on the roads. In the first place, we will need charging points. And the company supplying them has to prove the feasibility of running them as well. So it could take a while for this to become a reality,'' he added. Meanwhile, the transport department has cleared inter-corporation transfers, meeting a long pending demand of the staff.
