By IANS
New Delhi : The Delhi High Court Tuesday directed the Delhi authorities to nab owners of Blueline buses if their drivers failed to adhere to traffic rules.
The owners should also be hauled up if they employed untrained drivers, a division bench of Justices Mukul Mudgal and P.K. Bhasin ruled, asking the Delhi government to take strict action against the ‘killer’ Blueline buses.
The notorious privately run fleet has been held responsible for at least 65 deaths this year on the capital’s roads. The court demanded that a date be set when Bluelines will be phased out.
The judges also directed the authorities to initiate contempt of court proceedings against bus owners who flout the rules established by the Supreme Court in 1998.
The apex court had banned overtaking by private buses on Delhi roads. If any bus violates this rule, the traffic police should prosecute its owner, the apex court had said.
Setting the maximum speed limit of 40 km per hour for buses, it had said the licence of a bus should be impounded if it is involved in any fatal accident.
Privately run buses, however, have been violating all norms with rampant over-speeding and overtaking.
With the number of fatal accidents involving Blueline buses rising in recent weeks, there is widespread outrage the ‘killer’ buses and the inability of the government to do anything concrete to check them.
Fixing Aug 23 as the next date of hearing, the high court asked the Delhi government to file an affidavit stating the number of buses involved in fatal accidents in the capital.
It asked the government to crack down on speed limit violations in the capital and added that any failure to do so will be seen as contempt of court.
It also called for an increase in the government buses on the roads as the state-run Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) was plying only 6,000 buses – though the government had earlier put the figure at 10,000.
Modern equipment such as simputers should be provided to the police to control vehicular traffic in Delhi more efficiently, said the bench, while directing the authorities to spell out by Aug 17 when Bluelines will be phased out.
The government was also asked to spell out the steps it is taking to improve the transport system in the capital.