Delhi Govt for settling transport row through officer-level talks

New Delhi, Nov 23 (UNI) In a significant step towards resolving the ongoing transport row between Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, the Delhi Government today requested the UP Government to send a delegation of senior officers to settle the issue through the process of dialogue.

After a high-level meeting, chaired by Delhi chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, it was decided that senior officers of the two Governments could work out an agreement/ MOU on the issue.

Stating that the concerns of the citizens were of paramount importance to the state Government, the Chief Minister expressed the hope that the issue would be resolved in the officers meeting.

''Commuters should not be forced to suffer due to some differences of opinion between the State Governments,''she said.

In case the issue remains unresolved after the officer-level talks, a meeting of the Transport Ministers of both the States could be organised. If some issues still remain unresolved, then only, as a last resort, a meeting of the Chief Ministers of both the States would become imminent.

The transport row between the two states began last week after the Delhi Transport authorities impounded some buses of the UP transport department, saying they were operating as city services in violation of a 2004 agreement between the two states. This was followed by the UP transport authorities seizing over 100 DTC buses operating in Noida.

Subsequently, both the states suspended the transport services in other states, putting to inconvenience hundreds of daily commuters between Delhi and Noida.

UNI AR RR ND1906