india

Updated: Mar 29, 2020 22:58 IST

The Delhi Government on Sunday ordered FIRs against Delhi Transport Corporation staffers who carry unauthorised passengers during the lockdown. Chief Secretary Vijay Dev ordered the police to crack the whip hours after the central government pulled up states for allowing tens of thousands of migrant workers to travel in and out of their states despite the national lockdown.

The first FIR was filed minutes later by a police team in east Delhi that had turned back 44 buses between 7 am and 5 pm. All of them had a sticker “Essential Services”, but were carrying migrant voters to locations near the Delhi-UP border.

According to a copy of the FIR accessed by Hindustan Times, the conductors had not issued any tickets to the passengers either.

“When drivers were asked why are they carrying migrant passengers, that too without issuing any ticket to them, all them told that ‘they had orders from superiors’,” the FIR said. It listed registration numbers of 44 buses.

Government officials familiar with the development said a second FIR was being filed on the complaint of another set of police officers.

In his order issued minutes earlier, Chief Secretary Vijay Dev ordered FIRs to be filed against officials of the Delhi Transport Corporation if buses are found to be carrying people without government ID cards or other special passes. The city government has been running a skeletal service to ferry people required to maintain essential services.

No bus, whether run by DTC or under cluster operations shall ferry any passenger who does not have any Govt ID card/authorised pass… In case any unauthorised passenger is found to be ferried by any DTC/cluster bus, FIR shall be filed against the DTC employees concerned (conductor, driver, depot manager), Vijay Dev said in his 11-point directive to district officials.