 Tamil Nadu Transport Minister S.S. Sivashankaran on March 7, 2023 said in the state assembly that the government is giving a tender for Metropolitan Transport Cooperation bus routes quoting gross cost contract. MTC bus operates 3,436 buses on 625 roads in Chennai. 35 lakh people travel in MTC as part of their daily routine life. MTC provides free travel to women, senior citizens, school and college students. The state transport corporation currently has a depth of Rs 16,146 crore. Around 72% of the total buses in the state government buses which comes to around 20,127. And they are running in 10,152 roads of these 7,164 or ordinary city buses. In these ordinary buses around 45% of the travelers are women who have no ticket cost at present which was the assurance of the present ruling regime. The proposal of the government is to run private buses in 500 roads this year and another 500 roads by 2025. According to this plan private buses will be operated in the government bus routes. Government is going to fix the amount for the private buses based on kilometers. The private bus owners have to give the complete ticket collection amount to the transport corporation on a daily basis. If the amount collected comes above the fixed amount then the excess amount will be taken by the transport corporation. If the collection is less than the fixed amount then the transport corporation will cover that loss. In the historical context transport was with the private sector in many states. In Tamil Nadu many private players were running transport corporation. It was the then DMK president who was the chief minister of Tamil Nadu Mr. Muthuvel Karunanidhi who nationalized the transport department. All the private transportations were owned by the state. The state became the owner of the transport corporation. Now his son Mr. Muthuvel Karunanidhi's challenge is the chief minister and he wants to undo the socialist principle that was adopted by Mr. Karunanidhi. He wants to hand over the maintenance and running of certain routes to private players. And the scheme explains that the private players will operate the bus but the government schemes will be implemented by the private players. That means government from its treasury will be paying the private players for all the passengers who are offered cost-free travel. For more than 80 years government buses have been running in Chennai. All the proposed routes in Chennai city for the private station are connected with national highways. The government buses can only operate on these routes at the moment. In the 288th century the state was not allowed to operate the bus. The state was not allowed to operate the bus. The state was not allowed to operate the bus. In 1967, in the early days of the Dravid era, the state was allowed to operate the bus. The purpose of the addition was hiring and running the private buses on the roads, which are owned by the transport corporations. All the unions including CITU and LPF protested strongly against this action. They said that the AAADMK government was trying to destabilize the transport unions. The opposition party, the DMK, had supported these protests. The AAADMK government explained that the amendment was made to run electric buses with private contributions. The government had to drop the move due to strong opposition. But now in 2023, the DMK government has started the same move, which was abandoned by the AAADMK government. If the private buses operate in these proposed routes, then the women, shopkeepers, the daily wages, senior citizens and students would be affected. The Stalin led DMK government proclaims that their government stands for social justice. The question now is whether this privatization of MTC roads will be a justice to the people who are struggling for their livelihood. The women who are living in the area of Kannaikinagar, Udaarnam and Perumbakkam, have come to the city for a 30 to 25 km journey. They have come to Perumbak and come back to the city to do their household chores. They are only hired by foreign board members. Why shouldn't they be hired by the DMK government? Why shouldn't they be hired by all the members? Why should they not be hired by the DMK government? Why should they be hired by the DMK government? The DMK government is so generous to the people who are working for the women. The question now is how to make women get hired by the DMK government. The constitution says India is a sovereign socialist, secular democratic republic. In a socialist, secular democratic republic, we expect the government to provide all the basic amenities. Transport is one of the important basic amenities which caters to the needs of children, to the students, to the elderly people, to the disabled people and almost the marginalized people and other people. It's a caste hierarchical society. The caste hierarchical society, the buses have to fly to the areas where the marginalized section of the people reside. It's a guarantee that it will be implemented properly. Taking into consideration various aspects, the transport corporation was brought under the state government. And the transport corporation coming under the state government is one of the model envisioned by Tandei, Iwera, Periyar. It is a self-respect movement, the Dravidian concept of the self-respect movement. The present chief minister, as he claims the legacy of Periyar, should not undo the good work done by Mr. Karunanidhi. He should carry it forward. He should give up the plan to give the transport corporation to private players which is not going to benefit the general public. It will only fetch certain revenue for a few private players and most private players will become richer but people will become poorer. Now it's become a question because the governments move for the privatization of this particular prime sector of the road transport, particularly what they call as the Dravidian model. My question is simple. Is Dravidian model is the agenda or it is the privatization agenda of the Dravidian model?