Delhi-UP Transport crisis due to Delhi Govt intransingence:Goel

New Delhi, Nov 20 (UNI) Even as the transport dispute between Delhi and Uttar Pradesh Governments remains unresolved, BJP leader and former Union Minister Vijay Goel today blamed the Sheila Dikshit Government for precipitating the crisis, which ''was inconveniencing lakhs of people commuting between Noida and Delhi.'' Adressing a press conference here, Mr Goel said that, contrary to the claims by the Delhi Transport department that impounding of UP Transport buses by the Delhi Government, which set off the crisis, was due to violation of the August 2, 2004 agreement signed between the Governments of Delhi and UP, the said buses were adhering to the agreement.

''The clause 6 of the August 2, 2004 agreement clearly states that the buses of the UP state road transport corporation will be able to pick and drop passengers from the same destinations between Delhi, Noida and Greater Noida as DTC is allowed. So, according to the agreement, the UPSRTC buses can run anywhere in Delhi. Why then were the buses impounded,''Mr Goel said.

Mr Goel said that on November 8, the general manager of the UPSRTC Shanker Agrawal wrote, quoting the August 2, 2004 agreement, that they would run buses from all the terminals and routes between Delhi and Noida as DTC is running.

Stating that it was the commuters who were facing problems in the fight between the two governments, Mr Goel urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to resolve the dispute between the two states.

Alleging that the transport agreement signed between Delhi and Uttar Pradesh ran contrary to the interests of Delhi, he said,''the agreement costs huge loss to the Delhi government.

As per the agreemnt, the DTC is allowed to run 90,000 km in the territory of UP while UP was allowed to run 30,000 km in Delhi's territory, a clause which is beneficial to the UP government because UPSRTC is using more rounds with just 30000 Km as their routes are smaller than DTC.'' In this context, he said the Delhi Government should finalise an agreement which would benefit the commuters of Delhi and stop the revenue loss to the DTC.

UNI AR VD KP1840