HC rejects govt's rehabilitation scheme for blueline operators

The Delhi High Court today rejected the city government's new policy for "rehabilitation of erstwhile blueline bus operators" in which they were allowed to operate "mid-sized buses" in some parts of the national capital.
A bench of Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justice Pradeep Nandrajog rejected the government's rehabilitation scheme and said, "This scheme has to go. It cannot be accepted in its present form".
"The government is free to frame a new scheme for their rehabilitation in consonance with the court's March 3, 2011 directions," it said.
The court, however, said, "A detailed order will be passed later".

According to the proposed scheme, the erstwhile blueline bus operators were allowed to operate "mid-sized buses" in the "unserviced or poorly serviced rural areas restricted broadly beyond Outer Ring Road and trans-Yamuna."
In April this year, the Delhi government had submitted its draft policy for rehabilitation of these operators whose "killer" buses had been phased out in January 2011.

The government had put the rehabilitation plan before the court and blueline operators and had told the bench that the Transport Department has worked out a policy to rehabilitate the nearly 1,500 blueline bus operators who had surrendered their permits few years ago when the state had announced its plan to phase out these buses.

The court was hearing the arguments of senior advocate Kailash Vasudev, who was assisting the bench as amicus curiae and was opposing the government's rehabilitation scheme.
Arguing that the private operators should not be allowed to run buses on the routes, the lawyer said the new policy allowed the same operators to come back to roads which would lead to the same old situation.