STA challans 53 school buses in just a month

When questioned,the school authorities whose buses have been challaned more than once in the last one month shifted the blame on the bus contractors.

“All these buses run on a contractual basis at our school; so it is more of an outsourced service. We have appointed a transport in-charge who keeps a check on whether these bus drivers and conductors are complying with the guidelines or not. Our responsibility lies in ensuring that the children board the bus safely and for that our teachers are always present around them when the children leave,” said Charles Samuel,principal of Mount Carmel School,Sector 47.

“It is our responsibility to provide the drivers and conductors with uniforms,name plates and various equipment which are to be kept in the bus. But then there has to be a sense of accountability among them as well about following of the norms,” pointed out Jagtar Singh,Transport In-Charge at Ryan International School,Sector 49.

The State Transport Authority had issued a list of guidelines,as directed by the Road Transport Ministry,to school authorities across the UT on June 3. These challans were issued to the school buses during random checks conducted by STA officials.

Meanwhile,Chandigarh Traffic Police plans to conduct a workshop to improve traffic awareness among drivers and conductors of buses associated with all kinds of institutes in the city starting August 6.

“We had called a meeting of transport in-charges of all the institutes in the city today. We will begin with the workshop on traffic awareness of these bus drivers and conductors from Saturday,” said DSP (Traffic) Vijay Kumar.