District administration to get tough on school vans for norms breach

BHOPAL: After carrying out a drive to check overcrowding of school buses, the district administration is gearing up to crack down on school vans to ensure that they adhere to safety norms.
Deputy commissioner Urmila Shukla, who is coordinating the drive, told TOI, "School vans are next on the list. The school buses would be monitored for a month after which an action plan for checking of school vans would be carried out.It is definitely in the pipeline."
She said it had become important to ensure that the school vans adhered to safety rules as a large number of students were using vans. Often eight to ten children are crammed inside them.
During the inspection drive on Sunday, it was found that drivers were not wearing uniforms and some of them carrying expired license. Few school buses did not had two gates as is required under the law.
According to Ms. Shukla, few school buses were in a bad condition and were apparently unfit to ply on roads. "Among the buses which were in bad condition were those that belonged to St Joseph's Convent and Sharda Vidya Mandir. Also the buses belonging to the latter were attached to a college as well", she said.
She said some of them were found carrying verification certificates, issued by unauthorized agencies.
"The schools, which had signed an undertaking stating their bus are fit for plying, were also found flouting norms", she said adding that action would be initiated against all such schools. A notice would be issued to the errant schools, seeking their replies within a week.
More than 240 buses, belonging to 32 schools, were inspected on Sunday. Army School, Bairagarh, still did not turn up consecutively on the second day. A total of 468 school buses were inspected during the two day inspection drive conducted by district administration authorities.
On Sunday Commissioner Praveen Garg went to two inspection zones, DPS Ratibad and Mother Teresa School, Kolar. Joint director Public Instructions DS Kushwaha, RTO PS Bamroliya and deputy commissioner Urmila Shukla were also present.