3 RTO officers suspended for negligence
GHAZIABAD: The Uttar Pradesh government on Friday suspended two additional regional transport officers and one regional inspector over the death of a 10-year-old student of Dayawati Modi Public School in Ghaziabad’s Modinagar.
Ghaziabad district’s assistant regional transport officer (enforcement) Satish Kumar, assistant regional transport officer (administration) Vishwajeet Pratap Singh and regional inspector Prem Kumar Singh were suspended for negligence, said the order issued by Rajesh Kumar Singh, principal secretary, transport department, Uttar Pradesh.
The government action comes after the Class 4 student looked out of the window of the school bus and died after his head hit a pole. It was found that the bus was operating without a fitness certificate and was also blacklisted.
While Satish Kumar was responsible for the inspection of school buses and other vehicles, Vishwajit Pratap Singh was in charge of Prem Kumar, who looked after fitness standards of the school buses. Prem Kumar is currently posted as ARTO Kanpur and was the regional inspector in Ghaziabad between 20152021.
Confirming about the suspension orders, Ghaziabad’s regional transport officer Arun Kumar said, “A departmental inquiry has been initiated against the officials.”
RTO, traffic police check vehicles, hold awareness programme for students
A day after the district magistrate of Gautam Budh Nagar Suhas LY held a meeting with various stakeholders to review the safety measures taken by school buses plying in the district, the Regional Transport Office (RTO) and the traffic police jointly inspected vehicles ferrying school children.
Prashant Tiwari, assistant regional transport officer (enforcement), said a checking drive was carried out in sectors 122, 12/22, 35, 58, 6 as well as Greater Noida west on Friday. Total 48 vehicles ferrying school children were found violating norms prescribed for school vehicles and were in operation without valid permits. While the RTO slapped a fine for violations in 30 of these vehicles, it seized the remaining 18 vehicles.
“A similar drive was carried out on Thursday too, in which RTO officials checked 57 vehicles. While 11 were fined, two were seized for violating standard norms,” added Tiwari.
“The district has 1,640 school buses registered with the RTO, 126 of which are blacklisted as their fitness has expired. We have sent notices to the schools, to which these 126 buses are attached, to get their fitness certificates renewed,” he said. A fitness certificate is issued to indicate that a vehicle is complying with different norms and procedures and is fit to be driven on road.
Representatives of parents associations alleged many school buses are overcrowded since the schools restarted with full strength earlier this month.
“Many parents have alleged that school buses are ferrying more children than the number of seats in the vehicles. We had earlier given a memorandum to the RTO office in this regard,” said Manoj Kataria, founder of Gautam Budh Nagar Parents Welfare Society. To this, Tiwari said, “During our checking drives, we did not find any school bus overcrowding students. We did find two school vans overcrowded and slapped fines on them. We appeal to parents to cooperate with authorities by staying alert and report to us if they see any school bus overcrowding students.”
Meanwhile, the traffic police personnel carried out awareness programmes for students of Kendriya Vidyalaya in Sector 24 and Kothari International School in Sector 50. They also held a session for students of Bhaurav Devras Saraswati Vidya Mandir in Sector 12 in their school bus. informing students about road safety rules. “School students were told not to put their heads or hands out of moving buses. If a student feels nauseous, he/she should use a paper or plastic bag to vomit and not poke their heads out of the window,” said Ganesh Saha, deputy commissioner of police (traffic), Gautam Budh Nagar.
FIR against lawyer, 50 others for ‘rioting’
A day after the family members of the boy staged a protest outside the Modinagar police station on the Delhi Meerut Road for close to two hours, the Modinagar police on Friday registered an FIR against a lawyer and 40-50 other unidentified suspects for ‘rioting’ and ‘unlawful assembly’ during the protest.
“An FIR under Sections 147 (punishment for rioting), 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence ), 151 (whoever knowingly joins or continues in any assembly of five or more persons likely to cause a disturbance of the public peace) and 153 (giving provocation with intent to cause riot) has been filed against one Lokendra Kumar, who was seen provoking and inciting others and is also accused of spreading provoking messages over social media for unlawful gathering,” said superintendent of police (rural) Iraj Raja. He added that police found that the main accused was sharing messages on social media, urging other parents and residents of the area to hold a protest on Friday and come in large numbers against the school and district administration.
“We have done videography of Thursday’s protest and are identifying all the people who were trying to incite the family members for their own gain and were trying to turn the protest violent,” added Raja.
Meanwhile, members of the Ghaziabad Parents’ Association alleged that the police were trying to silence the family members and their supporters.
“A message for a peaceful candlelight protest was being shared on social media by the supporters of the parents of the deceased child. The protest was supposed to take place at 4pm on Friday. However, it was called off after the police filed an FIR against one of their supporters. It seems like the police are trying to silence us,” said Vivek Tyagi, a member of the association.
Responding to the allegations, Raja said that since Section 144 of the CRPC is currently imposed in Ghaziabad district, holding protests is not allowed.