School Bus Owners’ Association to go on strike from Friday

Nana Kshirsagar,president,Maharashtra Rickshaw Sena said,“We are contemplating on going on a hunger strike. The school transport policy has asked for attendants on every bus and to check the wiring once in every 15 days. We do not have any problem in following these guidelines. The only thing we are asking for is time. And the government is not even ready to give us that.”

The bus operators have demanded withdrawal of a few norms,which they claim are impractical. “One of the norms say that buses older than 15 years old will not be allowed to ply,which is unfair. Also,it has been made mandatory to have a male and a female attendant on all the buses but nothing has been said about their salaries. The policy also mentions that if the buses are late,they will be charged up to Rs 1,000. It is unfair as the buses can get stuck in jams in cities like Mumbai and Pune,” added Shinde.

The members of the association’s Mumbai unit even displayed posters on all their school buses and hoardings have been put up in the city announcing the strike. They are also distributing leaflets in English and Marathi among students and their parents,informing them about the strike.

“The authorities keep changing the norms as per their whims and fancies. Whenever there is a mishap,school bus operators are blamed and new conditions are added to the existing norms. Out of the total 23 points mentioned in the norms we have implemented 16 points. We demand withdrawal of few norms and makes changes to others,” said Anil Garg,president of the school bus owners’ association,Maharashtra.

“A proposal was approved by the transport commission’s technical committee after getting the consent of manufacturers,schools,parents and NGOs. However the proposal awaits the nod from the state government and was submitted at Mantralaya on January 31,2011.We have been waiting for long,now unless state government comes up with an urgent solution to our problem we will not call off the strike this time,” added Garg.

However the move has been opposed by the Parents’ Teachers’ Association- United Forum. “They bus operators are blackmailing the institutes,parents and even state government so that their demands are met with. We have already written to the school education department,” said Arundhati

Chavan,president,PTA- United Forum.

An official from the state transport department said,“We are already working on solving the issue,at the same time we do not want to compromise with the safety of the school kids.”