Blueline toll 109; Dikshit is ‘helpless’

A private TV channel airs an interview with Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, in which she says her government is “helpless” in stopping the serial killing by the private bus fleet.

The rogue Bluelines claimed their 109th victim of the year — and the fourth in three days — on Barakhamba Road on Sunday afternoon. Within hours, a private TV channel aired an interview with Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, in which she said her government was “helpless” in stopping the serial killing by the private bus fleet.

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“Yes (we are helpless)…because they (Blueline operators) apparently are quite incorrigible. I have met with their Federation at least five times pleading with them — please, lives are very important for us,” Dikshit said.

Asked why the killer buses’ licenses could not be cancelled, she said: “You can’t, you know the license system that has been going on. The license is given to X and then it passes on to B.”

The government had asked all permit-holders to file affidavits naming the owners of their buses. Few have done so. The schedule for taking these buses off the road too is very liberal: complete phaseout won’t happen for almost five years.

Police described the 40-year-old man crushed by a Blueline on Sunday as a vagabond. They have impounded the Route 300 bus, but the driver fled.