The state Transport department has cancelled the permits of about 2,500 operators of contract and mini buses, whose addresses were found to be incorrect by Delhi Police. The address verification drive was initiated after the December 16 gangrape incident when it was found that the owner of the vehicle, Dinesh Yadav, had submitted false address proof. Thereafter, the Ministry of Home Affairs had asked for verification of all permit holders be carried out. There are close to 8,000 buses plying in the city. But only 204 bus operators have applied to the registering authority for change of address. “Transport department has now cancelled the permits of about 2,500 operators. Particulars of these buses have been posted on the government’s website,” an official said. The state transport authority, which allots permits for public service vehicles like chartered, tourist and school buses, had sent a list of permits holders of buses to Delhi Police for verification of addresses. “Delhi Police sent back a list of permit holders whose addresses could not be verified due to lack of authenticity. The owners of these vehicles were asked to submit their correct addresses through issuance of public notice,” the official said. A meeting of association of the bus operators was also called where they were apprised of the status of the issue. “They were asked to advise the operators to get their addresses corrected failing which permits of the buses or mini buses would be cancelled. Another public notice was issued again giving a list of such buses but the response remained poor,” the official said. Delhi Contract Bus Association’s Harish Saberwal said they were not aware of the permit cancellations. “We had a meeting with the Transport department and were collecting relevant data for them. In many of these cases, people have either shifted homes or had sold buses to other people,” he said. Earlier, police verification of only drivers and conductors of public service vehicles was carried out at the time of issuance of their Public Service Vehicle badges. In the wake of the gangrape incident, a need was felt to take all possible measures to secure public transport, which is when it was decided to carry out police verification of permit holders of contract carriage buses also. The new permit holders of contract carriage buses and other public service vehicles also have to undergo this verification.
