PM Narendra Modi walks among school students on Teachers Day in New Delhi. (Press Trust of India)
Students across the city had to face a lot of hardships in returning home after watching Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Teachers' Day address at their schools as Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) refused to provide buses during the evening rush hours.
DTC provides around 1,000 buses to ferry school students from home to school and vice versa. DTC refused to change its schedule and pick up students from schools in the evening.
Parents had a difficult time taking back their children home.
"It should have been done during school timings. Had it been the case, we would have appreciated it," said Sameer Gupta, father of a student of St. Columbas School.
The real hardships were faced by working couples as they left office early or made other arrangements to ensure their children reached back home safely.
"I had to leave my office to pick my child from school and drop him at home. I don't understand what the children are going to gain from the event, it is just a headache for the parents," said Mujahid Usmani, father of a student in DPS, Mathura Road.
Another parent Sonia Mahajan, whose child studied in class VI, said attendance of children should not have been compulsory.
"Some of us had to leave our offices to pick our kids from office," he said.
A DTC official said the Corporation could not provide the buses as it would have affected the transportation system in the evening rush hours.
"As per agreement, we can only provide buses to schools for morning and afternoon shifts but we cannot give our buses in the evening which is a highly rush-hour and DTC only caters to the crowd of people returning from offices for this time," said a top DTC official who didn't wish to be named.
He also said "schools demanded buses for evening shift. The agreement between schools and DTC also doesn't allow buses to ply during peak hours for ferrying students. Besides, we have also shortage of buses."
The city schools, including private, municipal, govt-aided and government schools, were directed to ensure that children are present in school between 3 PM and 4.45 pm on September 5, to watch the programme which would be telecast and webcast live.