Overcrowded schoolkids' ferrying cabs make police, parents anxious

ALLAHABAD: The traffic police is all set to carry out surprise checks of vehicles ferrying schoolchildren. With most of the schools and colleges reopening from Tuesday, the police have drafted a fresh blueprint to check the physical status of vehicles carrying children and have decided to check over 300 vehicles including cabs, buses and vans. The cops would also be checking whether the driver is capable to drive the vehicle or not?
Traffic cops also claimed that they would be checking overcrowding in cabs after few parents approached them and questioned the abilities of the drivers.School going children are often left to the mercy of reckless drivers. Besides, they would be having conversations with parents to ensure the safety of the children in all circumstances.
"We would be checking valid licences of motor cabs and tempos drivers ferrying children," said traffic inspector, IP Singh, and added, "For vehicle owners to be authorised to carry school children, they have to first get commercial licences and then get special permits. It is a long-time process, as there are multiple requirements that have to be met," he said.
"If one has fit authorised LPG kit and running it, there is no problem, but cabs running on LPG illegally would be dealt strictly," Singh said. The SP, traffic, has asked traffic inspector and traffic sub-inspectors to check the status of vehicles carrying vehicles and ensure the safety of school children.
Though the RTO and traffic police department has laid down stringent guidelines concerning school vehicles, they are rarely followed in reality. Most school vans are crammed with students and driven by people who don't have valid licences.
RTO (enforcement) AP Singh told TOI, "Stringent action would be initiated against those violating the norms. Last year a total of 10 tempos and cabs were seized and a strict warning issued to drivers to follow the set norms." As per the law, unauthorised cabs can be booked under overloading (Rs 2,000 fine), permit or registration violations (Rs 2,000 fine) and dangerous driving (Rs 1,000 fine).
Remarkably, it was specified that a school cab must have a speed governor, fire extinguisher, space designed inside the vehicle to place school bags and a first-aid kit. "I was not aware that these things are required to run a school cab. My employer has never told me anything," said Lakhan (name changed), a driver, who has been driving Omni to pick and drop children of an English medium school in Civil Lines for the last three years. The driver, however, refused to name his owner.
Even though it has been made clear by the police that a school cab cannot have more than eight passengers including the driver, most of these cabs are overloaded with 14 to 16 children.
Parents, however, feel that there should be checking of vehicles at frequent intervals. Sanjay Srivastava, father of Ritesh studying in class II at a city school says, "As we don't have enough time to drop and pick up children from school, we solely rely on tempo or cab driver and appeal them to drive their vehicle properly. There should not be over-crowding of children either in tempo or cab otherwise it could loose its balance."