The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Opposition on Wednesday sought to squarely blame Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for allegedly shielding illegally running school buses and cabs in the Capital.
In light of a magisterial inquiry into an accident near Kanhaiya Nagar which found that the van was being illegally used for the transportation of schoolchildren, the Leader of the Opposition in the Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta alleged that action against illegal school vehicles was stopped August last year following the Chief Minister’s intervention.
“The inquiry found that van involved in the accident had outlived its permitted life span of 15 years. The incident evoked serious public outrage as one girl child lost her precious life and 17 children were injured in the accident which took place on April 26,” Mr. Gupta alleged.
Mr. Gupta referred to a special drive carried out by the Transport Department during July and August, 2017, against school buses and cabs running illegally in Delhi leading to the department impounding 751 school vans and over 25 buses running without “commercial permits”.
Quoting from the results of the drive, the Rohini legislator said that it was also found that the drivers’ antecedents too had not been verified by the authorities. The special drive, he further said, was triggered by the alleged rape of a minor girl in outer Delhi’s Najafgarh by the school van driver.
Drive was stopped
“However, the drive had to be stopped as the school cab owners met Mr. Kejriwal in August 2017 who granted them time till January 2018 to seek regular permits and get them regularised as per rules. During the last eight months, neither the vehicles owner approached the Transport Department nor Mr. Kejriwal woke up to the gravity of the situation,” he alleged.
The Chief Minister, according to the Leader of the Opposition was, therefore, guilty of a criminal offence leading to perpetuation of illegally running school transportation business.
Mr. Gupta argued that the magisterial inquiry had “pointedly recommended” that a special drive has to be collectively conducted by the Transport Department, the traffic police and local police to impound or weed out the vehicles which have no valid registration but used for transporting schoolchildren or any other purpose.
Calls for strict conditions
“There are as many as 70,000-80,000 cabs plying illegally as school vans in Delhi. According to the status note on transportation of schoolchildren of Delhi, about 6,000 vehicles are registered...Necessary amendment in DMVR should be considered to further prescribed stricter conditions to ensure compliance of law in this matter,” Mr. Gupta demanded.
