The Hindu : New Delhi News : Delhi takes a step towards ceasefire in bus war

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Friday, Nov 24, 2006
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Delhi takes a step towards ceasefire in bus war

Staff Reporter

Requests Uttar Pradesh to send senior officials for a dialogue

NEW DELHI: A day after the Uttar Pradesh Assembly decided to send a delegation to Delhi to resolve the ongoing war of buses between the two neighbouring States, the Delhi Government on Thursday took its first step to try and find a solution by requesting the U.P. Government to send a delegation of senior officials for a dialogue.

The matter was discussed at a high-level meeting chaired by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and it was decided that senior officials of the two Governments work out an agreement or memorandum of understanding on the issue.

Claiming that the offer had been made by it as the concerns of the citizens were of paramount importance, the Delhi Government said commuters would not be forced to suffer due to some differences of opinion between the State Governments.

The Delhi Government also expressed hope that the issue would be resolved in the upcoming meeting of officials. However, it said, in case the issue still remained unresolved then as a last resort a meeting of the Chief Ministers of the two States would become imminent.

For the past ten days buses of the UP State Transport Corporation and the Delhi Transport Corporation have not been plying between the two States as they had got engaged in a rift after U.P. had introduced a CNG air-conditioned and normal bus service for Delhi from Noida and, claiming that it had not been informed in advance, Delhi had impounded some of these buses. UP had then retaliated in kind and impounded over 100 DTC buses plying in its areas.

Also, it was alleged by U.P. that Delhi had gone back on the agreement signed by the Transport Ministers and Principal Secretaries (Transport) of the two States in 2004 under which Delhi was allowed to run buses over 90,000 km in U.P. and in lieu of this U.P. was allowed to operate its buses 30,000 km inside Delhi.

Another reason for the latest war has been the Delhi Chief Minister's refusal to meet UP Transport Minister Naresh Aggarwal when he visited the Capital recently. Since the meeting was denied on the ground that protocol had not been followed and prior appointment not taken, an annoyed Mr. Aggarwal had on reaching Lucknow ordered impounding of all DTC buses operating in U.P. saying they were doing so illegally as they did not possess relevant permits.

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