Stalemate persists on Delhi-UP transport row

New Delhi, Dec 2 (UNI) Stalemate persists between Delhi and Uttar Pradesh on the transport issue with both sides failing to reach an agreement on various contentious issues.

Two rounds of talks held over the last week between transport commissioners of the states failed to resolve the more than two week-old row.

A spokesperson for the Delhi Transport Department said a meeting of the Delhi Cabinet would be held on Monday to decide on the steps to be taken to resolve the issue, after the Delhi High Court yesterday directed both state Governments to resolve transport crisis amicably in ten days.

A bench of acting Chief Justice M K Sharma and Justice Hima Kohli asked the authorities of both the neighbouring states to settle all the vexed issues and submit affidavits by December 18, the next date of hearing.

The row began after the Delhi Transport department impounded some buses of the UP Transport Department saying that that they were operating as city services, something which ran contrary to the 2004 agreement signed between the two state governments.

In retaliation, UP also confiscated over 100 DTC buses operating in Noida, which led to the DTC suspending its services to Uttar Pradesh with UP following suit.

However, after the Delhi High Court, on a petition by the UP Government on November 23, directed the two governments to hold a dialogue to resolve the matter in public interest. A six-member team of the Delhi Government headed by the Transport commissioner of Delhi, held talks with officials of the UP Transport Department to discuss ways to solve the present impasse.

Though the UP Government subsequently released all the DTC buses confiscated by it, the talks between the two governments failed to make much headway.

UNI AR VA HS1726