For kids, it’s a risky ride to school

UNFIT VANS Norm violation, parents’ negligence and lack of RTO follow-up all spell trouble for little commuters

LUCKNOW: School children in the state capital brave a safety hazard every day. The vans that ferry them to school have long been under the glare for packing kids like sardines in a tin. A van meant to ferry six kids accommodates as many as 10-12 children, with their bags hanging around from all sides of the vehicle. But what is worse, the windows do not have grills for protection and doors lack proper locking system, despite clear guidelines. There are 950 private school vans in Lucknow ferrying schoolkids and a sizeable number of them are unfit.

Ironically, parents have no one to blame but themselves if next time any school van ferrying kids meets any untoward incident. Despite repeated appeals to parents to ensure that their wards use a safe mode of transport, they have turned a blind eye to their children’s safety issue by hiring such unfit vans ferrying more children than the prescribed number.

From time to time, the state transport department has made several rules to curb use of unfit school vans. But it has failed to mount sustained pressure on plying of such vehicles, primarily because of non-cooperation from schools and, of course, parents. The guardians find a private van a more convenient mode of transport as it picks the child from their doorstep and drops him after school.

“The situation can be attributed partly to schools’ lack of co-operation in identifying such vehicles and largely to lack of involvement of parents who never complain to the authorities about unfit vans,” an RTO official said.

The net result is that unauthorised operation of private vehicles continues unchecked and unabated. Though the regional transport office and traffic department has jointly carried out drives against such vehicles, the measure did not produce the desired result.

ARTO RP Singh told HT, “Due to election duty, we are not carrying out drives to check illegal plying of unfit vehicles ferrying kids. But once polls are over, we will start again. Anyone found guilty will be duly punished as per the rules.”

Hindustan Times carried out a successive meeting of all stakeholders-RTO, traffic department, school principals and parents-at its office where the UPSRTC offered to ply school buses if institutions provided a list of their requirement highlighting the area on demand. A few schools like La Martiniere Girls responded but the rest ignored the suggestion and the plan never took off.

RTO officials claim that in the past, it did send notices to schools and vehicle owners but school principal ignored them and did not keet a tab on such vehicles.

However, the principal of a school said in all fairness, the transport department must get the stick too for its inability to crack the whip on use of unfit vehicles because it was the department’s duty.