Shiksha Niketan School ensures students don’t drive without licence

Vikas Sharma

Tribune News Service

Jammu, January 15

At a time when most of the educational institutions in the city are hardly taking any interest to know whether their students who come on their own two-wheelers (motorcycles and scooters) are having valid driving licence, Shiksha Niketan Senior Secondary School, Jeevan Nagar, a private institute, has taken a lead by launching a drive against non-licence holder students. The motorcycles and scooters of students who do not have driving licence are being seized by the school management.

Rameshwar Mengi, Principal of the school, while talking to The Tribune about the initiative said the drive was launched with the sole motive of ensuring safety of the students.

“In December 2015, we had invited a senior officer of the Traffic Police Department in the school to deliver a lecture. The lecture was so impressive that the school management has decided to launch a drive of its own kind,” said the Principal.

“This drive is only for students of Class XI and XII, who usually come on their own motorcycles and scooters to the school. Before launching it, the school management had sent a notice to the parents of all the Class XI and XII students that no student will be allowed to bring any type of motor vehicle to the school if he/she does not have a valid driving licence. It was made clear that in case the student failed to provide the licence, his/her vehicle will be seized and that is what we actually did,” Rameshwar Mengi stated. He added that the total enrolment of students in both classes is around 1,500 and more than 700 motorcycles and scooters are being parked daily in the school parking.

“When we started the drive in December, those students who did not have valid driving licences, their bikes were seized by the school management and it was only after when their parents came to the school, the keys of the bikes were handed over to them. We are not even allowing triple riding on bikes,” said the Principal, Shiksha Niketan Higher Secondary School.

“The parents had earlier raised some objections when the bikes of their wards were seized by the school management at the start of the drive, but now we are getting their full cooperation and they lauded our initiative,” the Principal said.

School staff daily check students coming on their bikes for valid driving licences. Now most of the students have prepared their driving licences,” Mengi claimed.