5 school vans, 10 autos impounded

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, February 16

The Regional Transport Authority (RTA) secretary today launched a drive against overloaded school buses, vans and auto-rickshaws plying in the city. The RTA impounded around five school vans and 10 auto-rickshaws.

These auto-rickshaws and school vans faced action for not complying with the guidelines of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Bathinda Tribune had recently highlighted the issue in these columns after that RTA started taking strict action against violators.

RTA secretary Udaydeep Singh Sidhu said, “The impounded buses were not following the norms such as installation of first aid box, fire extinguisher and most importantly, there was no female attendant in the school buses.”

He added that time and again, they had apprised auto-rickshaw drivers not to carry passengers more than their capacity but they hardly paid any attention to it.

In a particular case, an auto-rickshaw driver was carrying around 17 schoolchildren in his vehicle. Besides, they don’t even have any documents.

Singh said the drive to put curbs on traffic violators would continue in future as well. He urged the drivers to follow the traffic norms to avoid challans.