Parliamentary panel to summon Delhi Police Commissioner

This will be third time Kumar will be summoned to appear before a parliamentary panel after the incident.

The meeting of the Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture, chaired by senir CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury, also saw the members wondering how come the bus, in which the heinous incident took place, continued to ply on city roads despite having been penalised six times in past.

Sources said it was pointed that the bus was let off every time it was challaned.

Representatives of traffic police, which implment the law, and Delhi administration were found passing the buck on each other for this in the meeting.

While the argument of the traffic police was that it was absence of proper laws in Delhi that led to the court letting the bus off, the Delhi administration officials blamed it on the "inefficient handling of the chargesheet" by the police that led to the situation.

Sources said Yechury stressed on the need for an autonomous authority having convergence of transport traffic police and road maintenance wing to overcome such problems.

Union Transport Ministry Secretary, Officials of Delhi Transport Department and various others, including those of NHAI, were called to today's meeting, which saw MPs cutting across party lines expressing their anger over the prevailing bus licencing system in transport department describing it as "jungle raj".

"While issuing the licence is the responsibility of Delhi government, monitoring responsibility is with the Centre. It is a totally chaotic system in bus licensing department where the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. It is a jungle raj," an MP reportedly said in the meeting.