Drivers of school vans and cabs on Tuesday took part in a march against the police booking cases for not following norms related to safe transport of children.
As many as 600 drivers and other operators of vehicles transporting children to school marched from Mini Vidhana Soudha to Hamilton Circle.
Addressing the protestors, CITU district secretary Sunil Kumar Bajal said that the district administration and police gets active only after tragedies such as the one in Trasi. Under the guise of enforcement of guidelines for safe transport, police were chasing vehicles and imposing heavy fine for alleged violation of rules. This was causing harassment not only to drivers but also to children coming in those vehicles.
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Rather than a knee jerk implementation of norms, Mr. Bajal said police and district administration should go about in a methodical way in enforcement of norms.
The number of children who can travel in an autorickshaw, van and a school bus should be fixed in a scientific way.
A vigilance committee should be set up in each school to monitor vehicles bringing the children to school.
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A district-level child safety committee should overlook the entire arrangements for safe transport of children to school. It needs nearly three months to put a system in place, he said.
Umesh Shetty from the School Drivers’ Association said that some schools were not allowing vehicles to come inside and drop the children. He said tourist vehicles involved in transporting school children should not be forced to paint their vehicles in yellow.
Kumar Malemar, another member of the association, said it was saddening to see police booking cases against drivers and shown them in bad light.