Rules flouted while ferrying children

The lives of children from government schools, who have been chosen for Republic Day celebrations, are at risk these days. They have to travel in overcrowded buses to reach Tau Devi Lal Stadium where students of various schools are practising for the celebrations.

The lives of children from government schools, who have been chosen for Republic Day celebrations, are at risk these days. They have to travel in overcrowded buses to reach Tau Devi Lal Stadium where students of various schools are practising for the celebrations.

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The education department has provided the bus facility to the government school students. But rules are at stake as buses are filled doubled to its capacity.

There are a total of 4,051 students participating in the district Republic Day celebrations. Nearly 2,200 students are from government schools. The department has arranged five Haryana Roadways buses for the purpose.

Authorities are least concerned about the safety of these schoolchildren. Surprisingly, these buses are not challaned for the violation by the traffic police on the city roads.

Teachers said that authorities should provide more buses to the government schools. “It appears that we are travelling in a local bus and driver is only concerned about extra income,” said a senior teacher of a government school.

However, the education department does not see any problem in it. Dr Manoj Kaushik, district education officer, said, “I don’t think that there is any such problem. We should be happy that students are coming to the venue by bus.”

Bharti Arora, DCP (traffic), could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.