Educational institutions in city come together to form association to discuss safety of school vehicles and implementation of RTO rules
Educational institutions in city come together to form association to discuss safety of school vehicles and implementation of RTO rules
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Schools across the city have decided to take matters into their own hands. Even as the city police and the Regional Transport Office (RTO) dawdles on its solution for safety of children in school buses, authorities from a few schools got together and formed an association to address the problem. It has been over a fortnight since schools reopened. The RTO is yet to send a letter to schools asking them to form a committee headed by the school principal to look into the safety of children in buses and other vehicles.
Getting proactive: The association formed by the schools will ensure
they are involved in the decision-making process of the government
where safety of children's transport is concerned.u00a0 File pic
"We haven't received any such letter though we received a letter from someone to attend a meeting to discuss safety of children in transport. If we are supposed to form any committee, we don't know," said Nalini Sengupta, principal of Vidya Valley School. Meena Chandavarkar, director of New India School, said: "A few schools in the city got together and formed an association to ensure students' safety during transport and to keep out unreasonable laws implemented by officials."
Rajiv Jagtap of the Abhinav Education Society was elected president of the newly formed Pune Schools Bus Association, while Shashikant Sutar, founding member of New India School, was elected the vice-president. Other schools representatives from Sinhagad Springdale and Loyola School were elected to administrative posts. "The initiative to organise such a meeting was taken by our school and it was well attended by other schools. We didn't have any discussion on autorickshaws. Firstly, we weren't told to monitor them and neither is it possible. We discussed school buses and the new norms prescribing a checklist of 30 conditions that school buses have to fulfil," said Chandavarkar.
Chandavarkar said some of the rules were essential while some others were not necessary. Citing the example of the right hand door rule, she said: "We have already got new buses and it costs Rs 30,000 to attach a right hand door to them. They sent us the notification on May 29 and school reopens on June 13. How is it possible to implement all rules in such a short time? Also, buses should have two fire extinguishers weighing five kilos each. Firstly, our bus already has two-kilo extinguishers.
We think it's better if they are not too heavy so it can be handled easily by anyone during emergencies," she said. Rules like installing bells at the doors, poles near seats, displaying the experience and track record of bus drivers were also discussed. "The aim is to get a consensus on what schools think can and can not be done and to put forward our demands before the government. We also want to ensure they keep us in the process of decision-making. We wanted to ensure the safety of our children during transport and that's why we needed to take some pro-active steps in this direction," she said.
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