Auto-rickshaws put lives of school children at risk

Manmeet Singh Gill

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, November 29

While the Safe School Vahan guidelines of the Supreme Court explicitly stress on the safety of schoolchildren, a large number of auto-rickshaws and vans are openly flouting the safety norms by transporting more children than the capacity of the vehicle.

The local administration has once again imposed a ban on overcrowding of the auto-rickshaws and the vans till January 7. Such bans have been imposed in the past, too, but they have failed to set the things right.

A casual look at the auto-rickshaws transporting schoolchildren would reveal that more students than the capacity of the vehicle are made to sit inside them. “Sometimes, the children are hanging outside. It is not safe and the traffic police must take notice of this,” said a parent, Charanjeev Sharma.

Even primary section children can be seen travelling in auto-rickshaws, which have no basic safety measures. “If the auto-rickshaws are to be used for ferrying children, at least these should have iron grills to protect them,” said another resident, Angad Singh.

To check the problem, Deputy Commissioner Basant Garg has instructed the principals of the schools to sensitise the parents on this issue. While the school buses come directly under the control of school managements, the auto-rickshaws and the small vans are usually engaged by the parents on their own.

The basic reason behind lack of action on such auto-rickshaw drivers is evident. In the past, when the administration had started taking action against vehicles transporting school students, the auto-rickshaw union had launched a protest and stopped ferrying schoolchildren.

The Deputy Commissioner’s orders state that strict action would be taken against the vehicle owners if more children than the vehicles’ capacity are seen travelling by it. The DC said instructions had been issued to the Police and Transport Departments to implement the ban.