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Chaos reigned supreme on Delhi's roads on Tuesday as the three-day-old crisis arising out of the Supreme Court's order on CNG buses took a violent turn with mobs setting ablaze five buses.
The full magnitude of the shortage of buses and three-wheelers came to the fore as thousands of public vehicles went off roads in compliance with the SC order.
A 2000-strong mob torched five buses in South Delhi and stoned 12 others in Badarpur area, DCP South P Kamaraj said.
No one was reported hurt as those on board were forced to get off before the mobs torched the vehicles.
Senior police officials are camping in the area to bring the situation under control.
Public transport continued to be in disarray for the third consecutive day as lakhs of commuters, particularly office-goers, jostled to gain a toehold in overcrowded buses.
With the Delhi government expressing its helplessness in providing buses to schools, children had a tough time reaching their institutions.
In several residential areas, the crisis forced parents to pool in their resources to send children to schools.
Only a fraction of the 12,000-strong DTC fleet and 55,000 auto-rickshaws were plying on the roads as the transport department struggled to issue permits to vehicle owners who have undertaken to switch over to CNG by September 30.
As per the figures made available by Tranport Minister Parvez Hashmi, more than 27,000 vehicle owners have agreed to switch and the transport department is not equipped to issue such a large number of permits at such a short notice.
''We cannot issue more than 4,000 permits per day...the situation is likely to normalise only next week,'' Hashmi said.
The Delhi government is hoping to get a reprieve from the apex court when its petition asking for a week's time to issue permits comes up for hearing later in the day.
UNI & PTI
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