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Supreme Court order affects bus service

Several private bus operators in New Delhi have struck work, expressing their inability to fulfil the Supreme Court guidelines for ensuring safer travel.

The guidelines have been issued in the wake of last week's school bus mishap which claimed 29 lives.

On the second day of the strike today, the operators met Delhi Transport Minister Rajendra Gupta and complained of ''great police harassment''.

The bus operators claimed that challans (tickets) worth several thousand rupees had been issued by the police against 98 per cent of the drivers in the past four days.

Several private bus operators have not been plying their buses since yesterday, claiming they cannot comply with guidelines issued by the Supreme Court last week to make bus travelling safer.

Several schools, depending on private buses to transport students, announced a holiday today. Several thousand school students and office-goers were stranded yesterday as contract buses did not ply.

The traffic situation is set to get worse from tomorrow as another bus operators's association has threatened to go on strike in protest against the Delhi government's decision not to renew bus permits for five years. Its president Ramesh Dalal has said that as many as 3,920 of the 4,000 Blueline buses are affiliated to his union.

The apex court guidelines, issued in the wake of the Wazirabad school bus mishap, in which 29 students were killed, directed limits on crowding, installation of speed governors and at least 10 years experience for school bus drivers.

Rajendra Gupta said the bus operators's main grievance appeared to be against the police.

''The Supreme Court guidelines, however, have to be obeyed immediately,'' he added. Asked if the Delhi government was planning to ask the apex court for some more time to enforce the directions, he said ''maybe''.

As for the strike threat by the Blueline bus operators from tomorrow, Gupta said efforts would be made to operate the 4,000-odd buses of the Delhi Transport Corporation.

UNI

EARLIER REPORTS:
Search for missing students continues
28 kids killed as school bus plunges into river
'We don't know where to go, what to do. Whether our kids are alive or dead.'

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