Won’t let school buses pick or drop wards outside premises: Chandigarh to HC

This was informed to the High Court today during the resumed hearing of a contempt petition demanding action against Chandigarh and the states of Punjab and Haryana for not complying with Court directions issued with regard to traffic in 1998. An affidavit was filed by UT Secretary Transport Authority Mahavir Kaushik today.

Kaushik told the Court that all the Institutions have been asked to park their buses inside the school boundary wall at the time of picking up or dropping the students. The affidavit also stated to ensure safety to the students,school buses more than 15 years old were not permitted to ply on the roads.

The Chandigarh police has also been directed to challan and impound the vehicles not confirming to the specifications. The affidavit added the Chandigarh Administration was not running its own school buses.

“But,some of the government schools had on their own entered into an agreement with private bus operators for hiring buses for the students” reads the affidavit.

The High Court on the last date of hearing had directed the Chandigarh Administration to set down rules for regulating the number of students that can be ferried in rickshaws and three-wheelers. Similar directions were also issued to Punjab and Haryana.

Justice Rajive Bhalla of the High Court had observed: “It has been brought to the notice of this court that cycle rickshaws and three-wheelers that transport school children,more often than not,are overloaded and on occasions more than a dozen children are seen sitting in the cycle rickshaws and three wheelers”.

Making it clear that the “safety of the children is of paramount importance”,Justice Bhalla said the issue “cannot be left in the hands of the mercenary schools and mercenary transporters”.