Thaindian News

New Delhi, Oct 29 (IANS) A Delhi-based advocate Thursday moved the Supreme Court challenging the Delhi government’s decision to hike bus fares, terming it “unjustified”.
Advocate Manohar Lal Sharma filed his lawsuit in the apex court registry, contending that “the government decision is unjustified and adds unbearably to the living costs of the poor in Delhi”.

Sharma told IANS that he would apprise the apex court bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan Friday of his lawsuit and seek its urgent hearing.

In his lawsuit, Sharma has pointed out to the court that the government has decided to raise the DTC fares on the ground that the public transport body had been incurring massive losses and it also needed Rs.450 crore as capital to buy more low-floor buses.

Sharma refuted the government’s rationale for raising the fares, saying that DTC was suffering losses not because of its low fares but due to the underutilization of its manpower and resources.

He said the DTC suffers from paucity of trained drivers, resulting in 40 percent underutilization of its buses which remain idle in bus deports.

Sharma’s lawsuit said despite lacking required number of trained drivers, the public bus service has superfluous staff who are left idling with no work to do.

“Hampered by shortage of qualified drivers - to the tune of 1,400, around as many buses, numbering 40 percent of the total buses, remain parked and idle during peak evening hours in various depots, adding to the woes of the commuters,” said the lawsuit.

Sharma said the state-run transport service firm has 27,818 employees, of which 2,000 are conductors, 1,147 maintenance workers and 141 administrative staff remain idle at their places of posting.