Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal today ordered all the buses operated by his family-run company to go off the road in the wake of molestation and death of a Dalit teenage girl after being pushed out of one of its vehicles in Moga district.
All the bus-operating staff has been asked to go on an orientation course.
“The Deputy Chief Minister, who is also the Home Minister of the state, has ordered that no bus of Orbit Aviation would ply on the road,” an official spokesman said.
He said that Sukhbir has also “asked (the) company to send bus operating staff on orientation course.”
“No Orbit bus should be on roads till completion of course,” Sukhbir, who is among the owners of the company said.
The action came as stalemate between state authorities and the family of the teenage girl continued today.
Family members of the girl have refused to perform her last rites rejecting government compensation and demanding action against the owners of the vehicle. The body of the girl has been kept in mortuary at Singhawala village of Moga.
All attempts by the state authorities to persuade the bereaved family yesterday to cremate her proved futile after they rejected a compensation of Rs. 20 lakh, a government job for her mother, her free treatment and holding trial of the case in a fast track court.
The family was insisting that the owners of the bus be booked in connection with the offence and its road permits be cancelled, a demand vociferously supported by AAP and Congress.
Meanwhile, buses of Orbit were stopped at various places, including Bathinda and Moga by activists of AAP.
