A district-level inter-departmental committee has been constituted to check school vehicles and discuss, decide and recommend issues pertaining to safety of children and their transportation. Constituted under the chairmanship of the Tiruchi Revenue Divisional Officer, the committee comprises Regional Transport Officers of Tiruchi and Srirangam, Assistant Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Chief Educational Officer, District Educational Officer, and Motor Vehicle Inspector Grade-I.
The committee has been formed in accordance with the Tamil Nadu Motor Vehicles (Regulation and Control of School Buses) Special Rules 2012 to ensure school vehicles complied with the provision of the rules.
The committee inspected vehicles of various schools in the district on Saturday after its formation recently.
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A total number of 120 school vehicles were checked during the day-long exercise at St.John’s Vestry Anglo-Indian Higher Secondary School ground.
Various parameters were checked including the mechanical condition of the vehicles, flooring condition, whether the vehicles had emergency exit doors and bag racks below seats, condition of seats, height of footboard, windows and its grills, locking and unlocking condition of the doors, and the driver cabin.
The committee also checked whether the vehicles were equipped with fire extinguishers and first aid boxes, and had provision of a grilled partition to separate the driver cabin, said the Regional Transport Officer, Tiruchi, S. Balasubramaniam.
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Lapses were found in as many as 118 vehicles and notices issued to the respective school authorities to rectify them before December 15, Mr. Balasubramaniam said. The schools were intimated well in advance through the Chief Educational Officer regarding the checks to be carried out by the inter-departmental committee.
The committee would meet periodically and evolve an action plan to check school vehicles either on the premises of the school concerned or in any other place as decided by the panel members.