SHIMLA: State government-owned HRTC had announced to provide entertainment facilities and blankets to passengers travelling in its Volvo buses as far as a year back, but there are complains by passengers that they are not even provided with drinking water , let alone the other facilities promised.A passenger has complained that he was provided only half liter of water on his journey to Delhi from Shimla, which was not enough for such a long journey. After complaining to state transport minister G S Bali, passenger Dev Ashish Bhattacharya also obtained information under RTI to know why passengers are not being provided one liter bottle of packaged water.He said that after boarding the HRTC Volvo bus bound for Delhi from Shimla, he was provided a half-liter water bottle at Karnal. "I consumed the half-liter bottle, and when I requested for another half-liter bottle, the conductor plainly refused saying that he does not have extra stock. I spoke to the transport minister G S Bali and he also could not solve the issue," he added.Bhattacharya said that in the neighbouring states of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan; passengers are provided with branded water bottles of one liter by the State Roadways while travelling in their Volvo buses. He said that even Shatabdi trains from Delhi to Kalka and other destinations provide one liter water bottles to its passengers. "On demand, they do not hesitate to provide an additional water bottle either," he claimed.Bhattacharya said he filed an RTI application to get the information relating to the implementation of the rule regarding water bottles. The information revealed that earlier HPMC used to supply the half liter bottles to the HRTC at the rate of Rs 7.83 per bottle. However, the purchase committee floated a tender to get the rates of one liter and 500 ml mineral water bottle. Only two companies participated in the tender and only one company technically qualified. The financial bid of this company was at the rate Rs 8.75 per 500ml bottle and Rs. 12.09 per liter mineral water bottle."The purchase committee rejected the offer of this company on the grounds that the HPMC was supplying at the rate of Rs 7.83 per mineral water bottle and decided to continue to purchase from HPMC. Information revealed that HRTC had decided not to provide one liter bottles to passengers of the Volvo bus services and no reason was given on record for the decision," he added.According to Bhattacharya, all of this suggests that HRTC is trying to save Rs 4.26 per bottle by serving 500 ml bottle to its passengers.

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