The police and management said the driver of the bus was new and took a different route than usual; action to be taken against him and the contractor
The students were from Stds 1 to 5. File pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi
A bus transporting students from R N Podar (CBSE), Lilavatibai Podar and RN Podar International Schools in Santacruz to their houses went missing for a few hours on Monday, causing panic among their parents. According to the police and the management, the delay was caused by a new driver who took a different route than usual. The students were dropped off to their houses by the driver about 4-5 hours later.
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The schools’ management has assured parents it will take action against the driver and the bus service contractor, the police said.
The worried parents of the 47 students had rushed to the schools. Some approached transport minister Anil Parab, and other politicians for help. “Taking the wrong route is not acceptable. Action should be taken against the school bus contractor,” said Parab.
BJP leader Ashish Shelar said, “The schools’ management has assured that they will review the school bus services’ Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), for a worry free commute.”
DCP zone 8 Manjunath Shinge said, “All the students reached home safely. The management should not have assigned a new driver or should have ensured he was trained about the route even if he was new.”
What complicated matters was that the phone of the driver was not reachable. Asked why the driver did not check the GPS on the bus, the CEO of the schools said she was only going to give a statement about the delay. Hina Shah, CEO of Anandilal and Ganesh Podar Society that runs the schools said, “We are happy to confirm that all students were safely dropped to their residences. We regret inconvenience caused to our students and parents due to the delay in transport services today. The transport service providers will be thoroughly re-trained to ensure that the transport service resumes to normalcy in the coming days."
“The children reached home safely,” Jt CP law and order Vishwas Nangare Patil said.
Inputs from Diwakar Sharma
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