The transport commissioner of Haryana and Chandigarh has instructed all district transport officers-cum-secretaries to carry out fitness tests of school buses on public holidays too to ensure that the vehicles have fitness certificates by April 28.
This comes after recent inspections, carried out in the backdrop of the Mahendergarh bus mishap, revealed that a number of school buses in the state do not possess valid fitness certificates. The department has halted the inspections as of now.
In a notification issued on Wednesday, transport commissioner Vijay Kumar Joshi said, “The fitness test of school buses which do not possess fitness certificate shall also be done on the public holidays this month -- April 20, 21, 27 and 28, in addition to normal days. The schools should get their buses presented before the board of inspection for test of fitness and grant of fitness certificate, if found, roadworthy.”
Anil Kumar, transport inspector at Rohtak, said, “We checked 406 school buses over the last few days, out of which 55 were issued challans and 43 were impounded. We found that majority of the impounded buses do not have a valid fitness certificate.”
He added that they had suspended the bus inspections till further orders as the government has given schools time till April 28 to ensure the buses have fitness certificates. After that, the vehicles will be impounded, said Kumar.
{{/usCountry}}He added that they had suspended the bus inspections till further orders as the government has given schools time till April 28 to ensure the buses have fitness certificates. After that, the vehicles will be impounded, said Kumar.
{{/usCountry}}In Bhiwani, the transport officials have inspected 113 buses, out of which 20 buses were issued challans and 13 buses were impounded.