Gzb: Over 100 vehicles seized ferrying students illegally

The inspections were carried out at 76 locations and mostly outside schools, leading to impounding of vans, cars, e-rickshaws and other private vehicles

The Ghaziabad traffic police on Tuesday seized 154 unauthorised vehicles ferrying school students in different parts of the district. Officials said these were private vehicles that were seized during a special crackdown on errant vehicles.

Schools were asked to contact parents and arrange for transportation after the illegal vehicles were seized. (Sakib Ali/HT Photo)

The inspections were carried out at 76 locations and mostly outside schools, leading to impounding of vans, cars, e-rickshaws and other private vehicles, they added.

“The drive was held in the morning outside schools and also in the afternoon after classes got over to avoid any hassles to students. Schools were asked to contact parents and arrange for transportation after the illegal vehicles were seized,” said Piyush Kumar Singh, additional deputy commissioner of police, traffic.

Officials said the seized vehicles were not authorised to ferry students and a majority of them did not have any commercial registration.

“Many were found overloaded, posing a risk to students. They were found without permits and there was absolutely no adherence to norms laid down for school transportation vehicles. None of these vehicles was attached to any school and they were operating privately. Our drive will continue and seized vehicles would not be allowed to ferry students,” the officer added.

Traffic police said that the drive will continue in the coming days.

Members of the parents’ association hailed the measure in the interest of safety and security of students.

“The drive should be conducted for some more days to weed out all such vehicles as they do not follow any safety norms. However, if these vehicles continue ferrying students after some days, then the current drive would have been a complete failure. Parents must also understand that overloaded unauthorised vehicles are a safety risk to their children,” said Vivek Tyagi, spokesperson of Ghaziabad parents’ association.