‘Keep a check on Bal Rath buses plying without fitness certificates’

Team Herald

PANJIM: Taking note of the fact that 60 Bal Rath buses are plying without mandatory fitness certificates, the Goa State Commission for Protection of Child Rights has directed the Transport Department to initiate necessary action against the erring management of the education institutions for compromising on the safety of students. 

Chairperson Peter Borges, in a communication to Director of Transport said that as per Section 2(47) of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, a school bus is a transport vehicle and therefore requires a permit to ply on the road. Being a transport vehicle, it also needs to undergo mandatory fitness tests periodically, without which the permit cannot be renewed. 

The chairperson has referred to the fitness report of Bal Rath submitted by the Transport Department in August, as per which 60 of the total 419 buses are plying without proper mandatory fitness certificate, compromising on the safety of so many children and risking their lives.

The Commission has held Children Transport Committees headed by the Principal or Headmasters of the concerned schools, accountable for negligence. 

“The fact that around 60 buses have not renewed their fitness certificate, some of them for more than a decade, shows the callousness of all involved in monitoring the same,” Borges said.