School vans sans CCTVs, security at stake

Naina Mishra

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, July 25

In the wake of a recent incident related to a three-year-old student of Sacred Heart Convent School, BRS Nagar, being found locked in a school bus near the Civil Hospital, a big question arises whether the guidelines issued by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and ‘Safe Vahan’ scheme is being followed by schools in true spirit or not?

According to the CBSE norms, global positioning system (GPS) and CCTV cameras should be installed in every school bus. It shall be ensured by the owner of the vehicle GPS and CCTV are kept in working condition all the time.

It has been found that numerous schools do not keep CCTV camera recordings. Surprisingly, many school buses have non-functional CCTV cameras.

Yadwinder Sekhon, a bus driver of Sarabha Nagar-based school said, “The CCTV cameras do not work in school buses. Nor does the school have access to them. They do not consider school buses as part of their responsibility, so why will they bother? They asked us to work individually in coordination with parents. They tell us to keep working the way we have been performing our duties in the past. Even school permit is also not provided to us.”

The rules further states that the CBSE affiliated schools should not own or hire any transport service which does not have a valid permit or do not fill requisite permit conditions issued by the State Transport Departments. In case of a hired school bus, the school authorities should enter into a “valid agreement” with an owner and transporter of a school bus and shall keep a copy of documents related to the bus.

Another bus driver Sukhwinder Singh of the model town extension-based school said, “The school does not support us at all. The school does not ask for any camera recordings. Moreover, my vehicle is an eight seater and the DTO is issuing clearance to our buses. Even today I had to pay tax for my vehicle. They ask us to bring a seventeen seater bus and get clearance. From where do we get the bus now?”

Principal of Guru Nanak Public School Mona Singh said “The incident that happened recently was an eye-opener. Such a thing never happened in the past, so we weren’t preventive in our approach. We will be more alert and draw lessons from the incident. The onus of safety of hired buses is also on us, apart from the ones owned by the school. We will check camera recordings on a regular basis as we never lay stress on this aspect before..”

Kritika Seth, transportation incharge of BCM Arya School said, “We have formed a transport committee and are very particular about following the rules. We take memory card of cameras from drivers daily and give them a blank card so that regular monitoring is done. We have also formed bus monitors so that they keep us informed. The parents have access to GPS tracker and can track bus anytime. There are some schools that are not following the policy and because of them image of all schools is being tarnished.”

Meanwhile, Surinder Lamba, ADCP Special said, “We will check school buses regarding ‘Safe Vahan’ scheme through the ADCP Traffic and in coordination with the District Transportation Office.”