Novel protest: School buses to be parked over potholes

Office-bearers of the School and Company Bus Owners Association have said that their school buses will block roads if the condition of roads does not improve.

Addressing a press meet, Anil Garg, president of the association, said that they will park school buses over potholes to block roads if the situation does not improve. They, however, did not specify when this will take place and clarified that school buses will not go on a strike and that picking and dropping children to school will go on as usual.

There are 1,500 school buses associated with the association. “We will shoot videos of potholes and give the BMC for proof that potholes exist. The BMC does not seem to know counting beyond 40 when it comes to the number of potholes,” Garg said.

“When children are late to school, parents and teachers blame us, who is to blame for the condition of roads?” he asked. “There were also instances of children reaching late for exams because of this issue. Who is to be held responsible?” he asked.

“It should take a child a maximum of 45 minutes journey to reach school. Since the rains have begun, it has started taking one and half to two hours,” said Bharat Malik, Vice-President of the Federation of Unaided Private Schools Association of Maharashtra, speaking at the meet.

“As a result, a child spends over three to four hours commuting to schools to attend school for five hours,” he added.

The condition of roads is worse in Kalyan, Ambernath, Ulhasnagar and Thane, they said. “Our tolerance level is so high, we accept things so fast. We need to change that mindset,” Malik said.