Violations by school buses back as authorities sleep

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, June 22

It was about two month ago when 24 schoolchildren lost their life in a fatal accident in Nurpur of Kangra district. The accident had prompted the authorities to take action against illegal school buses. In Kangra district, the police had carried out a special drive against these buses.

Again illegal school buses are plying on the roads and the authorities have turned a blind eye to these.

In the Kangra region, hardly any school is maintaining its own dedicated fleet of buses for schoolchildren. Parents pool in and hire private vehicles to send their children to schools. Schools maintain that it is the responsibility of parents to drop their children. The mode is cheap for parents and easy for schools, but is full of risk for children and is in violation of the Supreme Court guidelines.

After the bus accident, the police and local administration carried out a drive against private vehicles carrying schoolchildren more than their capacity. In Una district, schools were also penalised against illegal parking of vehicles.

The result of the administrative action was that in Dharamsala, private vehicles had gone on a strike. For a few days, parents were forced to drop their wards to schools. It led to traffic chaos on roads near schools.

On the plea that the police were challaning vehicles for overloading, the private vehicle owners increased their fares from Rs 800 to Rs 1,500 per month in Dharamsala. The increase in fares has raised hue and cry among the parents.

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

Principal of schools said if they abide by the rules, three employees would have to be hired for each school bus, including the driver, a male attendant and a female attendant. These employees would cost a minimum about Rs 20,000 per month per bus to the school. The cost of ferrying children per month could go up to Rs 4,000 to Rs 5,000 per month.