Uttarakhand authorities have told the school managements in Dehradun give priority to the safety and security of children studying in their institutions.

At a meeting held in Dehradun on Saturday morning between the administrative authorities, representatives of private schools and citizen’s representatives, it was conveyed that the schools would have to do their bit for ensuring the safety and security of the children.

“We have schools with strength of 800 children but having only two small school buses. We have decided to ensure that they procure more buses and adhere to the guidelines of the No Objection Certificate (NOC) given to them by the Regional Transport Office (RTO),” said Transport Secretary Umakant Pawar.

Dehradun, which is known as the school capital of India, is currently grappling with the acute problem of traffic management with regards to school children. The main issue is of parents flouting traffic norms while coming to drop children to school and picking them up in private cars which results in traffic snarls.

The second is about children driving two wheelers to school in sheer violation of Motor Vehicles Act. The Dehradun RTO zone has 3,60,077 registered vehicles out of which 80 per cent are plying on the roads of Dehradun city which are unable to take this much load of vehicles.

Pawar said that the government would ensure that its nominee on the board of private schools tales up these issues with the authorities. “The schools need to acquire more buses. We have also decided to authorize private operators to run school buses. It will be the duty of the school authorities to identify the operators and ensure that they have proper place for parking and boarding of children. Meanwhile, we are encouraging people to form car pools for dropping children to schools,” he told The Indian Express.

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