Team Herald
MARGAO: The Goa Women’s Forum (GWF), a collective of women volunteers of civic and consumer forums, organised an inspection of buses operating from the old bus stand in Margao for violations of various mandatory signages as well as permit conditions as laid down by the Directorate of Transport.
The inspection conducted on Friday was done in collaboration with the Enforcement Team South Goa led by J De Sa, Motor Vehicle Inspector and Swaraj Naik, Asst Motor Vehicle Inspector.
The GWF volunteers undertook Friday’s inspection as part of its ongoing month long rights awareness campaign after they received complaints from women commuters of various violations in these buses.
Some of the violations identified on Friday were the eight reserved seats for women were not complied with, the fare table was not displayed, cell phone number of the bus owner and the Police emergency 100 was not displayed.
It was also noticed by the team in some buses printed tickets were not available, air horns were being used, the brake and indicator lights were non-functional, the emergency door was not in working condition and bald tyres were in use.
It may be noted that the mandatory signage and reserved seats for women were introduced after the Nirbhaya rape case in Delhi and on the instructions of the Supreme Court to the Central and State governments. These conditions to be followed by bus owners were publicized by the Directorate of Transport for the State of Goa and brought to the notice of the general public.
The enforcement team of the Directorate of Transport issued the required challans for the various violations noticed and the GWF volunteers distributed information slips to the women passengers during the inspection.
GWF has said that they would continue its inspection campaign in different parts of Goa to ensure that public transport is comfortable, affordable, safe and efficient. GWF would like to ensure that the girl child, higher secondary and college girl students and women in general find it safe to use public transport.
