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Sixteen months after the Covid-19 pandemic hit the country forcing schools and colleges into shutting down, several thousands of buses plying to these institutes across the national capital still continue to remain off the roads. This has put hundreds of bus service providers in dire financial straits as they are struggling to make ends meet and also pay their employees.
All the schools in the national capital are physically shut for students since last March. Even as the Delhi government allowed schools to partially reopen for classes 9 to 12 between January and February, transportation services did not resume.
The Delhi Contract Bus Association, an umbrella organisation of over 1,700 contractors who ply 45,000 to 50,000 small and big buses for schools in Delhi and NCR, on Friday wrote an open letter to the Central government requesting a “relief package”. “Schools and colleges all over India are closed from 22 March 2020 till date… Thousands of operators have been rendered unemployed and thousands of buses, on which bank loans are still outstanding, are getting rusted for one and a half years…As per the Supreme Court guidelines, the design of the buses which are under contract with any education institution is completely different and cannot be used for any other purpose,” they said in the open letter addressed to Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari.
The association has warned the government that they will surrender the keys of their vehicles to the office of the Union transport ministry if it doesn’t come out with a “relief package” for them in the next 30 days.
In February, the association moved the Delhi high court seeking exemptions from payment of road tax and levy of penalty post-December 2020, in view of the losses suffered due to the Covid-19 outbreak. The court, in March, directed the petition be treated as a representation by the respondent.
Members of the association are scheduled to have a virtual meeting with the Delhi transport department officials on Monday regarding the matter. “The matter is sub-judice. Delhi government will provide every possible help to those affected by the pandemic,” said a senior government official.
Harish Sabharwal, general secretary of the association and owner of Sabharwal transport, said his company owns 168 school buses and employs over 300 people. “Service providers like us could still manage to pay the salaries to our drivers, conductors, and helpers despite zero earnings till now; the smaller ones are struggling to even make their ends meet. Many of them have started selling their vehicles, and in some cases, banks have confiscated the buses after they failed to pay the EMIs. Now, we do not have money to pay our employees,” he said.
Sabharwal said that the insurance of all these buses have expired though they did not ply on the roads in the last 16 months. “The rubber parts of the buses need to be lubricated every four months. Now, all these parts and batteries have been destroyed in the last one and a half years. Whenever the schools reopen and transport services are allowed, the operators will have to spend at least ₹1.5-2 lakh per bus, including ₹70,000-80,000 as insurance renewal fees,” he said.
Vimal Wahi, owner of Jupiter travels, said he has to repay a loan of ₹1.6 crore he took for running his bus service. His agency owns 65 school buses and employs around 200 staffers. “We had been provided a loan moratorium till last September and after that, we had to pay everything. We have no money to pay instalments now.”
Some service providers said they have been receiving notices from banks after failing to pay the EMIs. Manik Chawla, the owner of Chetan travels, said he has to pay ₹40 lakh as monthly instalment to banks for his 110 buses operating for some prominent schools in Delhi. “I have not been able to pay the instalments since April last year. I have my family responsibilities and also have to pay something to my staff also. Right now, I do not have money to even pay the fees of my own child. The schools have also not provided us anything,” he said.
Several private schools said the government order barring them from collecting anything other than tuition fees have put them in a difficult situation. “At a time when we are struggling to pay the salaries of our teachers who have been working continuously , how can we pay transport service providers whose services we have not taken since last year? Our hands are tied,” said a principal of a private school requesting anonymity.
The Delhi High court earlier this week quashed the Delhi government’s fee order, yet schools are not allowed to charge transport fees from students.
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