Autos continue to ferry students violating norms in Ludhiana

Nikhil Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, August 9

The city has hundreds of auto-rickshaws which have been ferrying students to school and vice-versa.

Most of these vehicles are not following the proper safety norms and are putting the lives of schoolchildren at risk.

Surprisingly, auto-rickshaws meant for ferrying passengers were found to be used for transporting school students.

During a random survey in the city on Friday, some auto-rickshaws carrying children were found overloaded and no proper safety measures were being followed by its drivers. The overloaded autos were putting the lives of schoolchildren at risk.

In an e-rickshaw carrying school students in New Upkar Nagar, children were found sitting alongside the driver. As per the norms, auto-rickshaws should have grills on the door so that students remain seated inside the vehicle in aproper and safe manner. However, in the auto, there were no grills installed and there was a risk of students falling off the moving vehicle. Even norms suggest that the schoolchildren should not be allowed to sit along the driver seat. But two students were caught sitting along the driver. Since the auto was a passenger vehicle, it could not be used to ferry students.

It is learnt that such autos were not engaged by most of the schools, instead parents themselves hire these to send their children to schools.

Another auto-rickshaw was seen on the Jassian road in which over 10 school students were bundled into it. A few autos were seen in which students were sitting on the temporary seat behind the rear seat, which is equally dangerous.

Recently, The Tribune had also carried a report in these columns in which a girl child was seen sitting on the side bar of an overloaded rashly-driven auto-rickshaw while clinging to it on the PAU road.

Kids’ lives at risk

During a random survey in the city, some auto-rickshaws carrying children were found overloaded and no proper safety measures were being followed by its drivers. These were putting the lives of schoolchildren at risk.