Educational institutions demand time from transport authority to implement new norms in phased manner
Educational institutions demand time from transport authority to implement new norms in phased manner
The response from schools could not have been more lukewarm. Of the over 6,000 schools in the district, barely 100 responded to the meeting called by the Regional Transport Office (RTO) to discuss safety of children in school vehicles. The meeting organised by the RTO at Tilak Smarak Mandir last morning went on till afternoon. Jitendra Patil, deputy regional transport officer, made a presentation on the new norms for school buses issued on March 22 by the home department and asked schools to step up on their implementation.
Too little time: The notification stipulating RTO norms for school buses
was sent to schools by end of May, just two weeks before the institutes
were set to open. File pic
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"The vehicle should not be more than 15 years old. A complete list of children travelling and their contact details and blood group should be available in the bus. Besides that, the vehicle should have a signage indicating its status as a school bus and should be painted yellow on the front and the rear side," he said.
Apart from this, availability of two fire extinguishers weighing five kilos each in the bus, a door on the right hand side of the vehicle for exit and parents right to access details regarding the bus drivers' experience were the other points discussed.
Arun Yeola, regional transport officer, said schools were told to form a committee on school bus transport at the earliest. "This committee will be headed by the principal and have a PTA member, a traffic policeman and an RTO officer as members. It will ensure that all conditions for safety of children in buses are met with. Schools were also told that the RTO had started a special drive and if the conditions weren't fulfilled then licenses of drivers and vehicle documents would be confiscated," he said.
Too many rules
Meena Chandavarkar, director of New India School, which recently formed an organisation Poona Schools Bus Association, said conditions were too many and there was too little time to fulfil them. "The notification was issued in March and we were informed by the end of May. By then, we had bought buses and now we have to make modifications, which is not fair. Also, we don't have much time to make the alterations as schools have already started. The RTO must give the schools sometime and a priority list so that we can get the work done in a phased manner," she said.
Balasaheb Khedekar of the Pune District Luxury Bus Association complained that there was no uniformity in the norms and that the new notification of home department clashed on certain norms issued by the RTO recently. "We are confused as every time a new norm which is contradictory to the old one is being communicated to us," he said.
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