The Bengaluru city police’s traffic management plan issued last month to ensure smooth flow of traffic around schools seems to have hit the roadblock as the bumper to bumper traffic and traffic jams continued in the Central Business District, with majority of the schools re-opening on Monday.
Traffic police personnel posted outside schools to regulate traffic were helpless due to the high traffic inflow. Many cars were seen stopping right in front of the schools on Residency Road. With Tender SURE (Specifications for Urban Road Execution) works being carried out on St Marks Road and Residency Road, the traffic chaos, traffic police say only seems to be getting worse.
" Problems are bound to be there on the first day. Some schools that have space inside have agreed to allow private vehicles inside. But, our primary focus is to discourage private transport. "- M.A. Saleem, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic)
Traffic police personnel were seen arguing with private vans that were ferrying school children. “Move fast, you have parked here for half an hour,” said an irate traffic police personnel as the van driver pleaded to allow him to park for a few more minutes as two of the children had not reached the van.
Many schools are also wary of allowing private transport inside citing safety of children, and also point out that this would be in violation of school safety guidelines issued by the city police commissioner that states children should be isolated from the van drivers. Some schools have an annual parking facility for vehicles of the parents, but traffic police personnel say many parents prefer a quick stop in front of the school and want to avoid going inside the premises as several vehicles are parked inside the schools. “Majority of the children have their parents or drivers pick them up in cars. Until that stops, posting even a dozen traffic police at the school will be of no help,” a traffic police said.
Many of the traffic police personnel were seen telling private van and auto drivers not to park in front of schools. However, this does not seem to have gone well with parents as they feel safety of their children will risk. Moitreyo, a class seven student said, “It will be difficult to walk alone to the road parallel to our school as there is so much of traffic. It would be better if the vehicles come in front of school,” he said.
"Allowing private vehicles in the campus may pose safety concern for students. We feel that private vehicles should not be allowed inside. Moreover, our campus is small and entry and exit of vehicles may pose a problem." - Fr. Clifford Sequeira S.J., Principal of St. Jospehs Boys’ High School
>Investigating the Satyam scam One of the top city schools conducted a workshop on the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act for their teaching and non-teaching staff. | >Separating truth from lies The Department of Public Instruction had in November conducted audits of schools across the State and found that many lacked safety measures. | >Pursuing Satyam scandal Department officials said that there was delay in processing this applications as the norms related to land requirement were revised in May. |
| Some Guidelines |
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| 1) Discourage private transport. 2) Provide parking within the school premises for buses. 3) Traffic cops to be assigned to each school to coordinate traffic. 4) Depute school van drivers for training in defensive driving. |
