Schools cautioned against non-compliance of safe vehicle policy

Administrations of educational institutions have been cautioned against a casual approach towards the implementation of Safe School Vahan Policy.

At least 15 vehicles, belonging to various schools, were issued challans by government personnel, led by Regional Transport Authority-cum-Assistant Commissioner Gurmeet Kumar Bansal for violating norms

of the Safe School Vahan Policy.

There were still others who were asked to rectify certain shortcomings within a stipulated period to prevent legal action.

Overloading, lack of documents, extremely old vehicles, illegal amendments in sitting plans, lack of working fire extinguishers, inadequate first aid arrangements, absence of working CCTV camera and GPS, dress code of staff and absence of female conductors in vehicles carrying girl students were identified as some of the common discrepancies observed during a surprise checking conducted as part of a drive launched to prevent avoidable mishaps.

“We have issued challans to 15 vehicles, ferrying students of various schools, and asked authorities concerned at all educational institutes to rectify faults in all their vehicles without further delay,” said Bansal.

“Having received information about the alleged casual approach of the concerned authorities at certain schools towards the implementation of the Safe School Vahan Policy, we undertook checking of efficacy of various gadgets, including fire extinguishers, GPS and CCTV cameras at random and warned organisers of schools that they would be jointly and severally responsible for any harm caused to students, even if vehicles are owned by contractors,” said Bansal.

He further said that special teams of officials had been constituted under the banner of District Malerkotla Task Force, which would continue to take preventive and punitive action with the intent to ensure safety of students availing transportation facilities either directly from the school or through private contractors.

Ensuring implementation of the Safe School Vahan Policy has remained an uphill task for the administration as the number of vehicles ferrying students have been increasing steeply.

While almost all private schools in the region have been providing transportation facilities to students and staff, an equal number of vehicles visit the area for ferrying wards to educational institutes located in surrounding localities.

Ludhiana