Parents put burden of transport on schools

Prakash Date, Working President of the Palak Sangh Kriti Samiti said that the Regional Transport Office (RTO) rules regarding the strength of children to be ferried by autorickshaws be made applicable. The parents’ associations also placed the proposal of hiring the services of Swaraj Mazda school bus which can accommodate 45 children.

Sending a child to school has become a marathon task for parents with the child’s safety now of prime concern, Date said. Even as the parents sought the schools intervention over the issue, President of Vidyarthi Vahtuk Sanghatana Rajendra Bhave who has 3,750 autorickshaw drivers as members tried to impress the gathering on the need to have a pay-and-park system for autorickshaws inside the school premises.

Bhave however said that there would be no turning back on the strength of school children in the autorickshaw. While RTO permits six children in a three-seater, presently between 10-12 children are ferried to schools in autorickshaw. We don’t give haftas to policemen and unlike school buses which collect children an hour before school time, autorickshaws are more convenient, he added.

Earlier, B P Mali, Education officer, Secondary schools, Zilla Parishad also pointed out that grants to recognised schools would be stopped if they did not set up parent-teacher associations. Mali lamented that they did not have adequate staff to carry out inspections in as many as 834 schools in the district.

In his speech, S P college principal H S Sane said there was a need for setting up parent-teacher associations at the college levels. Earlier Mangesh Gupte, Secretary of the Samiti and Dr Pramod Jog, President of the Pune Palak Shikshak Sangh also spoke.