Tags:
Journalism of Courage
NEW DELHI, July 22: Traffic disruption on the Rajpura road at around 10.30 a.m., just when DCP traffic M.S. Upadhyay was crossing the area, resulted in 12 school buses being impounded. The buses belonged to the three schools run by the Beni Prasad Jaipuria Trust.
8220;We initially moved the buses because they were blocking traffic at an hour when they are required by the school,8221; says ACP traffic Ajit K. Singla. 8220;Later we found that the buses were violating Supreme Court orders. The speed governors were faulty and the drivers had no uniforms. Three of the drivers had earlier been challaned for rash and negligent driving. One was also involved in a fatal accident. These drivers should not be driving school buses.8221;
Chaos prevailed at the school as agitated parents and wailing students demanded an explanation from the administration. With only one functional telephone line, parents of the 3,500 students of the school could not be informed about the non-availability of buses to drop their children home.Though the police released the buses after the challan, according to them the transporter apparently refused to ply the buses till the challans were cancelled.
The confusion on the status of the buses continued till after 3 p.m., when some of the buses finally started plying. All through the police-transporter stalemate, the school authorities had no alternate arrangement to send the children home. While senior students escorted some of the juniors from their locality home, the school depended on parents to pick up their children. Worried parents arrived at the school to check why their child had not reached home, only to find him standing on the main road, blocking traffic.
8220;How can you be so irresponsible and let children wander on the main road?8221; questioned an agitated parent.
Transporter Vivek Bhatia has categorically told the school that the buses will not ply. 8220;The police told me that SC guidelines state that buses should be parked inside the school premises. Since there is no space to do that, I will not ply my buses.8221; Students have been told that if the buses don8217;t ply they should not come to school.
Even as the transporter held the school to ransom, transport in-charge Shripal Singh said that they had never checked if their school buses conformed with the SC rules. 8220;We cannot check if the speed governors are okay,8221; says Dr K.G. Rastogi, director of the schools. 8220;We have an understanding with the transporter and he is supposed to check. We have not had any problems so far.8221;
But the police say that there is an FIR filed against Ramakant Sharma, one of the drivers, and he did not have a licence on him. Similarly, there is a case pending against the other driver in Uttar Pradesh.
8220;Schools have to check all this,8221; says Singla. 8220;We have sent the SC guidelines to all schools. They have to keep a tab on their drivers and let us know if there is something wrong.8221;
