With the gruesome death of second standard student Shruthi becoming a wake-up call for the official machinery and the society at large, the officials attached to the Regional Transport Office here have forced school and college administrations to send their vehicles to their premises on Saturday for a comprehensive inspection to ensure operation worthiness of the vehicles .
Around 200 buses, vans and other vehicles from educational institutions were brought to the RTO office at the NGO Colony and a team of officials inspected them.
“We didn’t find any major or alarming problems which need immediate attention or pose threat to the safety of the occupants in the vehicles screened today . However, this check will continue for few more days in and outside the schools. The college buses also will be brought under the scanner,” said an official attached to the RTO Office during today’s check.
To further firm-up the safety arrangements in the buses, the RTO, Tirunelveli, T. K. Muthusamy has instructed the correspondents of all the schools to attend a meeting with him to be held on Monday during which it has been proposed to tell them in clear terms that the children’s safety should be paramount and any dilution in this aspect would have very serious repercussions.
Another major menace that may come to an end in the next few days is overcrowding of autorickshaws, particularly those three-wheelers packed with more than ten school children during the ‘school trips’. When City Police Commissioner Karuna Sagar took an initiative in this connection shortly after New Year to limit the number of passengers being carried by autorickshaws, stiff resistance from the autorickshaw drivers backed by a few political parties forced him to postpone his decision.
“Now a time has come for the police to act which should ensure the safety of the students travelling in the autorickshaws everyday. We’re not going to consider the so called political parties’ opposition in this regard this time. Even the Chief Justice of Madras High Court has made an observation in connection with the overcrowded autorickshaws during the hearing of the case pertaining to Shruthi’s ghastly killing. So this is the right time for the police to act,” said a senior police officer, who hinted that their operation against overcrowded autorickshaws might commence from Monday morning onwards.
On their part, officials attached to the RTO Office deployed in front of the schools will warn the drivers of autorickshaws carrying more number of students and tell the teachers standing at the school entrance to inform the parents of the students about the precarious manner in which their children were travelling.
“If the parents, teachers and the autorickshaw drivers still prefer to ignore our advice, the vehicles will be seized at the point where it is intercepted from Tuesday (July 31) onwards,” said Mr. Muthusamy.
Moreover, it has been decided to remove the narrow seat fitted behind the autorickshaw driver’s seat as the children are forced to sit in the seat during the ‘school trips’, he said.
Our Staff Reporter adds from Nagercoil
RTO officials checked 450 school and college buses in the Concordia school ground and asked the drivers of around 20 vehicles to correct defects and bring them again for getting Fitness Certificates.
The district administration had also directed the police to intensify checks to prevent overloading of buses and vans of schools and colleges.
