Transport Minister Gopal Rai accused several schools of betraying the government at the last moment despite making a commitment to provide their buses to the Delhi Transport Corporation during the odd-even scheme trial in the Capital.

The Minister listed Queen Mary’s in Mayur Vihar, Greenfields School in Safdarjung and Amity International School in Pushp Vihar and Saket among the 283 schools that failed to keep their promise to the government.

“Several schools betrayed us. Despite repeated requests, they did not provide us with buses... I wonder how committed they are to their ideals of teaching ethics to children and building their characters. A total of 1,799 buses from 408 schools had registered with us, but only 366 buses from 125 schools joined us,” Mr. Rai said at a press conference here.

“Some schools went to court even after we agreed to their conditions. We will publish their names. We will not take any action against them, but I want to ask them why they went back on their word,” the Minister said.

The schools, however, said they did not provide the buses voluntarily and that there was nothing wrong with it as a High Court order, on a writ petition filed by the Unaided Recognised Private School Action Committee, left the decision on the schools.

A spokesperson from Amity International school said: “Amity had agreed to provide its buses to the government, but we received a notification from the Action Committee Unaided Recognised Private Schools, which said that any school which is a member of the action committee and has involuntarily offered its buses to the DTC, they are at liberty to withdraw the same.”

She added the school had informed the government.