‘Verification of school cab drivers must’

Delhi women and child development minister, Kiran Walia has demanded mandatory verification of the antecedents of drivers and helpers in buses ferrying children to school.

Delhi women and child development minister, Kiran Walia has demanded mandatory verification of the antecedents of drivers and helpers in buses ferrying children to school.

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In a letter to education minister Arvinder Singh Lovely, Walia has asked him to order all private and government school principals to conduct compulsory identification checks of all drivers and helpers of school buses and vans and maintain records.

"This step will go a long way in discouraging happenings like the Prasad Nagar incident, where young innocent children had to face so much trauma and distress for no fault of theirs," Walia said.

Three children — a 12-year-old girl, and boys aged seven and ten — were raped, forced into incest for 18 months by their school cab driver and four teenaged boys in Prasad Nagar area of central Delhi.

Walia who visits the family twice every day since the incident came to light, has got R4 lakh sanctioned as an
ex-gratia help from the Delhi chief minister's fund to the victims to meet their health and medicine expense.