Half of chartered buses under fake address cloud

The suspicion that most chartered buses in Delhi are registered on fake addresses is getting stronger after a tepid response to the Transport Department’s drive to verify details of vehicle owners.

A drive launched in May has been given a miss by almost half of the 1,000 charted bus owners, said a senior official.

“We had sent notices to about 1,000 bus owners but only around 500 have responded with details of their current addresses,” said an official.

The department is now planning to act against the transporters who failed to join the annual exercise that was followed more diligently after the December 16, 2012 gang-rape in a private bus.

The owner of the vehicle used in the barbaric incident, Dinesh Yadav, lived in Noida but had got his bus registered on a fake  north Delhi address.

According to the transport official, all owners of chartered buses were issued notices on May 3 and were given time till May 31 to respond along with updated details of their addresses.

“We also gave them some grace period but only 500 bus owners complied with the direction,” he said, adding this raises suspicious of bogus addresses.

A drive to weed out permits registered under bogus addresses has been launched and information related to the outcome would be put up on the Transport Department’s website, he said.

“Schools and companies using the services of these vehicles can also see the details and get alert,” he said.

An official said most clients of such dubious transporters, whose vehicles are registered on fake addresses or have no permits, remain oblivious about their wrong doings.

Even the bus used in the December 16 did not have a valid permit.

“The permit of that bus had expired long before the incident took place. Yet, at the time of the incident, the vehicle was being used to ferry students

of two prestigious south Delhi schools,” said an official.

The bus owner later face proceedings for cheating, he said.