41 school bus drivers penalised in Barnala

Parvesh Sharma

Tribune News Service

Barnala, April 17

The District Transport Officer (DTO), Barnala, along with police officers and other staff members, today penalised drivers of 41 school buses and impounded three buses for violating mandatory norms under the Safe School Vahan scheme.

The violation of norms at such a big scale has shocked city parents, who have demanded immediate action against the school managements to prevent any mishap in future.

As per guidelines, all school buses must have golden yellow colour on the exterior, school bus insignia, emergency door, storage racks for school bags beneath all seats, fire extinguishers, first aid boxes in all buses and the driver must be in uniform.

However, this morning when special teams of the Transport Department led by DTO Barnala Amrinder Singh Malhi along with DSP Gurwinder Sangha and district child protection officer Abhishek Singla started checking, they were surprised to find that a majority of the buses were violating norms. “We were getting complaints that private school buses were not following mandatory norms. We will conduct regular checking in future,” said Malhi.