Nishikant Khajuria
JAMMU, Mar 17: Notwithstanding the strictness of Transport authorities and Traffic Police, a number of private educational institutions are still not following the Supreme Court guidelines with regard to safety of school buses thus putting lives of children at risk.
Majority of the school buses lack First Aid Box, Fire Extinguisher, horizontal grills, space for keeping school bags, door locks and qualified attendant etc. Further, some school buses are without permit and mandatory fitness test certificate.
Even as the Traffic Police and Transport authorities are in the knowledge of these deficiencies and a number of schools buses have been challanned after being seized during the last two months, the situation still needs a lot of improvement.
Majority of the school buses have been fined for not having First Aid Box, horizontal grill, door locks and attendant, he added.
Pertinent to mention here that as per SC guidelines, the school buses should be painted yellow, fitted with a First Aid Box, fire extinguisher, horizontal grills, reliable door locks, speed governor of specified standard, space fitted under the seats for keeping school bags, etc.
“School Bus’ must be written on the back and front of the bus and if it is a hired one, “On School Duty” should be clearly indicated. Further, the school name and Telephone number must be written on the bus while there must be a qualified attendant to attend to the children in the vehicle.
The driver should have at least 5 years of experience of driving heavy vehicles. A driver who has been challaned more than twice in a year for offences like red light jumping, violation of lane discipline or allowing unauthorized person to drive, cannot be employed. Further, a driver who has been challaned even once for the offence of over speeding, drunken driving and dangerous driving etc cannot be employed.
As per the Motor Vehicles Act, an educational institution bus is a transport vehicle and therefore requires a permit to ply on the road. Being a transport vehicle it should also need to undergo mandatory fitness test every year without which the permit cannot be renewed.
When contacted, Arvind Kotwal, Regional Transport Office (RTO), Jammu, admitted that some private school buses were not fulfilling the criteria set under the Supreme Court guidelines and Motor Vehicle Act. “We are not passing the school vehicles with deficiencies while Traffic Police is also doing its job,” he said adding that as a result of the ongoing drive, a number of schools have started raising their own fleet of vehicles.
“During the last few days, we have received applications by more than two dozen private educational institutions for registration of newly purchased Company Manufactured School Buses and Letter of Authority also,” he informed.
Regarding weekly report by the committee of Transport Inspectors and Dy SP Traffic to inspect buses of schools in and around Jammu, the RTO informed that the institutions having defaulting vehicles have sought some time to rectify the things.
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