Majority school bus/private vehicles ferrying students to and from school in Mormugao taluka blatantly violate the School bus safety guidelines. Kids are seen sitting three to a seat while others are seen sitting in the aisles and covering the emergency exits of the vehicle. There was congestion noticed even inside the driver’s cabin and this is a serious cause for concern for parents. Herald began its campaign for safe transportation of school children at the beginning of September and reported about the matter in the capital city a few times already. Mormugao taluka is also at fault for improper transportation of children.
“The bus that ferries my 10-year old son is usually always overloaded. I instruct my son to remain seated in the vehicle till he reaches the school. But other children are forced to stand in the moving vehicle as operators pack the vehicle to more than capacity,” said Kanchan Naik, a parent from Vasco.
The Herald reporter inquired with a few Regional Transport Officials and they too confessed that they haven’t taken any action against the overcrowding of school buses. They however, assured to take action following Herald’s inquiry.
“We always advice the school management to take precautionary measures while ferrying students to the school and back but now we will look into the matter and take action against all those operators found violating the norm,” said PI of the traffic cell, Sudesh Narvekar. The Assistant director of transport, Abhay Naik also gave a similar reply as he confirmed that his officers have, so far not issued any memos to the operators.
There are rules under which every school must have a transport committee to look into matters pertaining to safe transportation of children, identification of bus stops and vehicle fitness. The committee must be headed by the Principal of the school and must have one PTA representative as well as the bus administrator of the school, Traffic/Police inspector of the respective area, Inspector of the motor vehicles of the area, education inspector, representative of the bus contractor and a representative of the local authority. The committee must meet every six months prior to the commencement of every semester.
According to the rule, it is the Principal of the school who is responsible for safe transportation of children and he must take appropriate steps for day to day supervision of the manner in which transportation of students is carried out to and from the school. Further, the school should enter a Common Standard Agreement (CSA) with the transporters and must administer the School Bus Service through the bus administrator. Out of the 15 buses noticed, eight were overcrowded and openly flouting safety norms.
