Tightening its grip on plying of school buses to ensure student safety, the Telangana State Road Transport Authority (TSRTA) has asked all educational institutions seeking fitness certificates for their buses, to submit details of children availing transportation services.
“All schools must submit online the list of students travelling in their school buses. The enumeration must finish by May 30,” said B. Venkateswarulu, Joint Transport Commissioner, RTA. Additionally, the institutions have also been asked to provide driver details. The details can be submitted through RTA’s website.
The decisions were taken keeping in view last year’s Masaipet accident which claimed 19 lives, including 17 schoolchildren, who were killed when a train rammed into the school bus when it was crossing an unmanned railway crossing. A senior RTA official explained that seeking data of students and bus drivers will help in tracking in case an untoward incident takes place.
As of now, there are about 1,800 buses in the Greater Hyderabad area and about 8,000 in rest of Ranga Reddy district. “Once the schools start functioning after the summer break, we will conduct special drives to check if all buses have fitness certificates or not,” the official said. The fitness certificates provided last year would expire on May 15.
However, when contacted, the managements of various schools did not want to comment on the “new directive” from the RTA, which makes it mandatory for them to provide details of their bus driver and students travelling in the buses. “It is an order from the State government, so we have to follow it. This will in a way also help us, though some schools might not want to furnish these details,” said an official from a private school, requesting anonymity.
“So far about 500 schools have applied and obtained fitness certificates (FCs), while the remaining are yet to apply”, said a senior RTA official. He added that “even if schools start operating from June first week onwards, the buses which do not have FCs cannot play on roads. Managements of the educational institutes have time till June 30 to apply and obtain the certificates”.
“If they run the buses without obtaining FCs, they will be penalised,” said another RTA official, who added that the fine amount for operating school buses without FCs is Rs.5,000.
This year alone till May 1, the RTA has booked 391 cases against errant school buses for various violations. The number of such cases being booked each year has been increasing since 2012, indicating the need for greater monitoring, another senior official opined.
