Govt recalls all DTC buses on 'special hire' for security personnel deployed at protest sites

New Delhi: The Delhi Government has decided to recall all its buses that it had provided on 'Special Hire' to the Delhi Police and paramilitary forces deployed at the Singhu, Tikri, Ghaziabad border areas where farmers have been protesting against the Centre's three farm laws.

The direction came from the Transport Department to recall more than 550 of its DTC buses effective from Thursday onwards. A senior official from the Transport Department said that the move came following a review meeting which was held on Tuesday.

Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot had asked for a report from the DTC about its working, the number of routes being covered and how many buses are on the ground on a daily basis. The report which was submitted on Tuesday highlighted that several regular routes could not be covered due to a shortage of buses, the official said on account of anonymity.

"The minister said that so many buses are not required to be given to the Delhi Police. Few are alright but we cannot have a shortage and cause trouble for the commuters every day," another official from the Delhi government said.

Following the report, Ghalot directed officials to inform all the DTC depots to recall all its buses and cover the routes that have been left out in the past few days.

The email issued from the Department to DTC stated, " It has been decided by the Competent Authority to withdraw all buses deployed on Special Hire with immediate effect. It is therefore requested to relieve buses immediately and any further requisition of buses shall be considered after the approval of the Competent Authority."

Meanwhile, the DTC Karamchari Ekta Union has argued that the decision will take away the temporary roof over the heads of police personnel and paramilitary forces deployed on duty, who usually rest and sleep inside these buses.

One member of the union expressed empathy and said that now both farmers and security forces will be brought to the streets.

Meanwhile, the security deployment and law and order arrangements at the border areas continued with full force on Wednesday in anticipation that farmers might try to enter the city once again. And as the intense barricading continued, protesters said that the entire area surrounding Delhi now resembles an "international border"

While at the Singhu border, the epicenter of the ongoing farmers' agitation, shipping containers, iron rods between barriers and cement slabs have been used to seal the entry points, the tried-and-tested barbed wires, stone boulders and iron nails have been deployed at Tikri and Ghazipur borders to block people's entry into Delhi or to the protest sites.

Mandeep Singh (26), who has been camping at the Singhu border for the past 15 days, said the show of force and blocking the roads pose problems for the locals, not the protesting farmers.

In addition to heavy-metal barricades and concrete slabs, measures like digging trenches and using DTC buses as roadblocks have been deployed at the said Delhi-Uttar Pradesh and the Delhi-Haryana

borders.