E-Paper
Panchkula: 60 buses of eight private schools found violating Safe Vahan norms
After a school bus had overturned in a roadside field near Rattewali village in Panchkula on April 19, the regional transport authority (RTA), Panchkula, had issued directions for inspection of all school buses plying in Panchkula
Expired medicines in first-aid boxes, expired route permits and fire extinguishers, rusted body and no CCTV recordings are some of the flagrant safety violations found in 60 school buses of eight private schools in Panchkula.
After a school bus had overturned in a roadside field near Rattewali village in Panchkula on April 19, the regional transport authority (RTA), Panchkula, had issued directions for inspection of all school buses plying in Panchkula.
Subsequently, the motor vehicle inspector inspected 60 school buses from April 25 till May 6, and found most of them violating the Safe School Vahan policy. Taking strict note, the RTA has slapped notices on the schools.
Among the violating schools are Mount Litera Zee School, Mattanwala; BKM Vishwas School, Sector 9; The Gurukul School, Sector 20; DC Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 7; DAV Senior Secondary School, Sector 8; Bhawan Vidyalaya, Sector 15; Blue Bird High School, Sector 16; and Hall Mark Public School, Sector 15.
During the inspections, two buses of Hall Mark Public School were found plying with an empty first-aid box, no emergency number was displayed on the bus’s rear side, fire extinguisher was also empty and the glass of a window was broken.
In another bus of the same school, the medicines in the first-aid box had expired, the fire extinguisher was also past the expiry date, there were no blue strips on the front and rear side and the emergency number was missing here too.
At DAV Senior Secondary School, the rear side of a bus was rusted, while blue strip and red reflective tape on the back were missing on two buses. Another bus did not even have the school’s name. Mount Litera Zee School was found using buses with expired route permits and fitness certificates. Also, there was no CCTV footage of last three months in the school’s four buses.
The remaining schools were put on notice for not maintaining CCTV footage.
“The inspections have pointed out that most buses are not fully complying with the Safe School Vahan policy. We have issued notices to eight schools, granting them 15 days to rectify the shortcomings and get the buses checked, failing which action will initiated,” said RTA Hairatjeet Kaur Brar.
Brar said “Though most schools have installed CCTV cameras, they do not maintain data recordings. CCTV footage of a minimum 15 days has to be available at any given time.”
It may be mentioned that under the policy, a school bus not complying with CCTV norms will not be allowed to ply on roads.
