9,000 school buses may go off city roads from Monday

Schoolchildren who use the school bus may have a tough time from Monday if the School Bus Owners’ Association (SBOA) makes good its threat of withdrawing the entire fleet of 9,000 buses. Prajakta Chavan Rane reports.

Schoolchildren who use the school bus may have a tough time from Monday if the School Bus Owners’ Association (SBOA) makes good its threat of withdrawing the entire fleet of 9,000 buses.

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The association is protesting against the regional transport offices’ (RTO) crackdown on school buses. Exams are likely to begin from next week.

“First school buses, now tourist buses, too, are being forced to follow school-bus norms. This is harassment. Of the 9,000 school buses in the city only 3,000 are dedicated, the others are used for various purposes. We should not be forced to comply with safety norms in these buses too,” said Anil Garg, president of SBOA.

“If they want to see our strength we will surrender all our 9,000 buses to the Tardeo RTO and declare them non-usable on Monday,” said Garg.

For parents this means school bus services could be affected during the exams.

“The bus association is trying to scare parents by making such statements. We will approach the consumer court,” said Anujkumar Pandey, secretary of All India Federation of Parents Teachers Association.