Accusing around 280 schools of backtracking on their commitment to contribute to the “noble cause” by providing their buses for odd-even scheme, Delhi Transport Minister Gopal Rai demanded an answer from them for betraying the trust of Delhiites and playing with the future of the children despite having
the responsibility of shaping their future.
“Several schools betrayed us. Despite repeated requests, they did not provide us with buses. A total of 1,799 buses from 408 schools had registered with us. But after all the meetings and despite making repeated requests, only 366 buses from 125 schools joined us while 283 schools betrayed the Government even after giving their commitment. Some even went to court even after we agreed to their terms and conditions,” he said.
Rai further added, “We will publish their names. We will not take any action against them, but I want to ask them why they, who sculpt the future of children, went back on their wordsIJ They should have come forward for the sake of the campaign which we undertook to protect health of our children. Owners of 1,433 buses from 283 schools let us down after making
commitment.”
In anticipation of large number of people availing public transport, the DTC had made preparations for a carrying a capacity of 64 lakh people. “But carpooling played a major role. People shared their vehicles because of which there was fewer crowd in public transport. All buses were plying below full capacity,” Rai said adding that the department had kept 100 buses as standby in case of
emergency.
He said 4,462 DTC, 1,231 cluster buses and 1,251 private buses, totalling 7,143 ones were on roads on Monday.