SCnorms: Parents to shell out more for school bus

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, April 22

The Cabinet has decided to implement the Supreme Court guidelines for school buses. The decision comes in the wake of the Nurpur bus accident in which 24 schoolchildren were killed.

The district administration and the police have started issuing challans to private vehicles ferrying schoolchildren. However, this reactionary implementation of laws on school buses has posed problems for the parents and the school managements.

No dedicated fleet of buses

In Kangra region, hardly any school has its own dedicated fleet of buses for ferrying children. Parents pool and hire private vehicles to ferry their wards to schools. The school authorities maintain that it is the responsibility of parents to drop their children to schools. Although this is convenient for parents too, it is in violation of the apex court guidelines and pose risk to the lives of children.

Parents in trouble

The police and the local administration recently carried out a drive against private vehicles ferrying schoolchildren and overloading of school buses. In Una district, several schools were penalised on account of illegal parking of vehicles on roads. The result of the action was that in Dharamsala, the owners of private vehicles went on a strike. The parents were forced to drop their children to schools in their own vehicles, leading to chaos and traffic on roads near schools. Stating that the police were challaning them for overloading, private vehicle owners increased the fare from Rs 800 per month to Rs 1,500 per month in Dharamsala region. The increase in the fare has raised hue and cry among parents.

Deadline for school mgmts

The government has set a one-year deadline for the school managements to have their own fleet of buses. The school managements have two ways to do it. Either they will have to buy their own buses, hire permanent drivers and maintenance staff or outsource the services to a private transporter, who will maintain a dedicated fleet for the school. Either way, it is likely to lead to a steep hike in bus fares.

The principal of a renowned school said in case they abide by the rules, three employees — the driver, a male attendant and a female attendant — would have to be hired for each bus. These employees would cost nearly Rs 20,000 per month per bus to the school. If other expenditure for running the buses was included, the cost of ferrying children per month could go up to Rs 4,000 to Rs 5,000 per month depending upon the area. In this hill state, the parents, especially from the rural area, might not be in a position to bear this financial burden, he added.

Students’ safety: Solan admn seeks suggestions 

Solan: The district administration has invited suggestions from the public on how to ensure safe transportation of schoolchildren and devise an effective policy. At a meeting convened under the chairmanship of Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Dr Rajiv Saizal, school principals were directed to ensure that all norms pertaining to the safety of schoolchildren as per the directions of the apex court were adhered to. Dr Saizal said there would be no compromise on the issue as it involved children’s safety. He directed all school bus owners and taxi operators to adhere to traffic rules. Schools were told to promote car pooling in order to avoid traffic congestion. The minister also asked schools in towns to avoid parent-teacher  meetings on working days and asked them to fix such meetings  on Sundays. Solan SP directed the staff to ensure that vehicles failing to abide by the norms were challaned, adding that private vehicles being used as taxis to carry schoolchildren would not be allowed. Several such vehicle drivers  had raised a banner of protest when challaned for transporting schoolchildren in violation of the laid-down norms.