New Delhi, May 4 Hit by shortage of qualified drivers, the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) Friday approached the Delhi high Court seeking temporary relaxation of its directive to recruit only 12th standard pass candidates as drivers and asked for permission to appoint 10th standard pass ones in their place.Personally appearing before a bench of Justices T.S. Thakur and H.R. Malhotra, DTC Chairman Anshu Prakash pleaded that the public transport system would be paralysed by shortage of drivers, if the court's ruling was not relaxed.The bench of Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice H.R. Malhotra last month had said, 'The DTC and State Transport Authority (STA) are directed to ensure that only higher secondary pass candidates were appointed as drivers to drive a public transport bus.'According to the DTC rules the drivers would have to be at least 10th pass.Prakash, assisted by his counsels, said there are at least 3000 vacancies for drivers in the DTC.During the recruitment drive, the DTC received 3500 applications out of which only 1,200 were 12th pass, he said adding that the written test for the recruitment had been fixed for June 10.The Court directed the DTC to file submission in an affidavit by May 11, the next date of hearing.The Judges indicated that the court might give one-time relaxation, but the authorities would have to abide by the rulings from next time.'With immense influx of light and heavy vehicular traffic with tremendous increase in population of Delhi, the capital roads have become increasingly dangerous to human lives,' the 75-page order pronounced on a PIL had said last moth, while directing DTC to recruit only 12th standard pass candidates as drivers.A common man, a cyclist, a motorcyclist or a pedestrian is often knocked down by the DTC, blueline (Private bus) or other heavy vehicles plying on the roads due to rash and negligent driving of the drivers, the court had said.
(c) Indo-Asian News Service
