Most parents opt for the option of Carpool for school students nowadays. So seeing a bunch of kids cramped up inside an overcrowded mini bus or carpools is commonplace. But the state government, in the wake of the recent incidents involving school students in the city, has been urged to put an end to these malpractices. Thus to restrict the lease, the transport department will be taking strict ad effective steps for the same. Subhendu Adhikary, the transport minister of West Bengal, has assured about the planned meeting between the principal secretary and the police administration to “chart out a road map” as he was quoted saying. He pointed out that the ‘Safe Drive, Save Life’ campaign of Mamata Bannerjee, the CM of the state will be implemented ASAP to the school transport facility.
The government is also thinking of forming a ‘School Cabs Safety Committee’, which would consist of parents, drivers and school staff in each institution to look into safety aspects, transportation fee and identification of bus stops. In the words of the traffic police source, however, overloading of the vehicle has been termed as the major violation and one of the most instrumental reasons for such fatal accidents. Though the rules specify that the number of children in a vehicle should not exceed one and half times the permitted seating capacity if the children are below 12 years & each child above 12 should be treated as one person, but the rules, as if, remain on paper only.
However, the transport officers have declared that the problem is not associated with truck chassis being used for school buses and in their defense they pointed out the fact that till 2007, all bus bodies were built on truck chassis only. Overall, the following steps have been proposed to curb this leash on carpools for schoolchildren, as listed below:
- Heavy fine to be charged on offenders and seizing of permits too
- Strict rules for overloading will be laid down
- Regular checks on tires a must
- Make speed governor compulsory
Source: http://goo.gl/vHIitH
