The Hindu : To discipline erring drivers, 52 buses may lose permits

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jun 08, 2003

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Other States - New Delhi

To discipline erring drivers, 52 buses may lose permits

By Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

NEW DELHI JUNE 7. Just the way the police stations maintain a record of their "history-sheeters'', the Delhi Traffic police have prepared a list of buses which have been involved in not only fatal accidents but also repeated offences. What's more, the first "dossier'' on 52 such buses has been handed over to the State Transport Department, recommending cancellation of permits of these buses and their impounding by the authority.

The Joint Commissioner (Traffic), Maxwell Pereira, said the aim of the drive is to discipline the errant drivers by cracking down on buses involved in repeated offences. "There has often been a hue and cry about bus drivers being reckless on the road and actually killing people''.

So, he said, a study was undertaken about the road behaviour of buses involved in fatalities in Delhi during the year 2001 and 2002. The exercise helped the traffic police narrow down on buses which were repeatedly violating traffic norms.

The drive would also help check the earlier practice whereby bus owners used to absolve themselves of any blame and transfer the onus on to the drivers, who got away by merely paying a fine. Now, Mr Pereira said, all buses found on the wrong side of the law would be dealt with severely.

The study conducted by the Deputy Commissioner of Traffic (New Delhi Range), Arun Kampani, found that of the 16,102 buses in Delhi, 6,684 were having 5 or more prosecutions against them during the two years in consideration.

Further, 553 buses were involved in fatal accidents. Of these, 312 were found to be having five or more prosecutions against them. In the first phase, of their drive, the traffic police would proceed against all these buses by June-end.

Mr Kampani said that out of these 312 buses, 13 were involved in double fatal accidents while 299 had one fatality and cumulatively these buses had committed 5030 offences during the period under consideration.

Observing that these 312 buses, their owners and drivers constitute the group of people who have either killed or endangered the lives of the people on the roads of Delhi, the officer said they were actually "chronic traffic offenders'' as per the records.

The scant regard these traffic offenders have for the law can be gauged from the fact that one of the buses was found to be involved in as many as 87 traffic offences during the period of the study!

Noting that "the bus owners and their drivers have no right to be driving on the roads of Delhi as their presence is against public safety'', the officer said a computerised "dossier'' -- having a print-out attested by the Computer Branch -- of the offences of 52 of such buses has already been sent to the Transport Department for action. Another list of 43 buses has been compiled and would be sent soon for similar action.

Stating that the drive would make the bus owners and drivers see reason in disciplining themselves, he said it would also be a lesson for others. Most importantly, the consolidation of data will help the traffic police in compounding fines for offences and make repeated offenders pay through their nose.

On what action is being sought, the traffic police officers said the Transport Commissioner would move to cancel the permit of these bus owners and blacklist and debar them from any permit in future. Also, the traffic police have demanded that the driving licence of the drivers involved in fatalities be cancelled.

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