MUMBAI, January 15: School authorities will be now required to enter into contracts with bus and autorickshaw owners to ensure safe travel for school children.Following a surprise visit to some city schools to check on the condition of school buses, Minister of State for Education Anil Deshmukh today announced at a press conference that the education department will shortly issue a directive to the schools in this regard. The directive will be based on the spirit of the November 20, 1997, Supreme Court order regarding the credentials of school buses and their drivers.
Deshmukh's surprise inspection was a direct fall-out of the bus mishaps in West Bengal and New Delhi within a period of two months. Though the nature of the contract will be determined only after a meeting with school managements, transport authorities and parents, vital information such as the professional experience of drivers, license details and the condition of the vehicles will be carefully examined, Deshmukh said.
The minister
stressed that the directive will include punitive measures to ensure its strict implementation and added that neither the meet nor the issuance of the directive will be affected by the coming Lok Sabha elections.
Statistics provided by the education department reveal that 45-50 per cent of primary school children and 25-30 per cent of secondary school children avail of school bus services. However, with only a handful of schools boasting of their own buses, majority of the vehicles used by the institutions are hired on a contract basis.
Deshmukh's inspection started with the Indian Education Society controlled Shivaji Raje School at Dadar. Following an inquiry, it was found that the driver's license had been confiscated as it had crossed its validity. A student told the minister that though the school bus was a 60-seater, almost 100 students were packed in it daily and the bus made five rounds in a day.Kalpana Palekar, a mother of three, is very disturbed with the irresponsible manner in which the school
buses operate. ``Once the school bus dropped my children at Century Bazaar (Worli) instead of Kabutarkhana (Dadar).
Fortunately, some neighbours spotted them and brought them home. I complained to the school authorities but they don't seem to be bothered as the bus is on contract,'' she said.
Another parent, Ravi Khade said though he paid for both turns, he preferred to personally drop his child to school every morning. ``I am forced to do so because after travelling in the packed bus, my child walks into school with his uniform crumpled and his hair dishevelled,'' Khade said.
Arun Latnekar, owner of National Transport who was confronted by the minister, later said as per the Motor Vehicles Act, a school bus is allowed to carry one-and-a-half times more passengers than the seating capacity for children below twelve years of age. ``Which means, in a 60-seater bus, we can take as much as 90 children,'' he said. However, when the minister was asked about this provision, he replied that ``he had to look it
up''.
Said S M Jagtap, administrative officer of Sharada Ashram, which has eight schools under it, ``The buses are on contract. So we are not responsible for them." All the schools visited today maintained that they did check the registration number of the bus and the license of the driver. Though principals like M M Rege from Balmohan Vidyamandir agreed that they had moral responsibility, the staff was close-mouthed when asked whether they checked the vehicle fitness as well. ``That is the work of the RTO," he said. Meanwhile, the transport commissioner has issued a circular, dated January 2, to all RTO authorities saying as per the Motor Vehicle's Act 1989 and Rule 106, vehicles ferrying children to schools will face strict action if found to be carrying children more than the sanctioned capacity. The commissioner has ordered that all school buses be checked and a monthly report on the same be submitted to him.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
