RTO cracks whip on school buses, vans for flouting safety norms

There are over two thousand private schools in the city, but it is unclear as to how many have actually formed the committees. The state through its school bus safety policy has made it mandatory to implement several safety measures in school busses and vans.u00a0

Shivaji Daundkar, administrative head of the PMC education board, said, "We are still collecting information about committees formed by the schools. Once we have the exact details on schools that are yet to form committees, we'll issue notices to them."u00a0

Deputy Regional Transport Officer Ajit Shinde said, "Bus operators have been given time to make necessary changes in their vehicles. RTO has started taking action against operators for flouting the norms. On Wednesday itself about 20 buses were identified for the want of implementation of prescribed safety measures."

The action was initiated against buses that lacked fire extinguishers, contact details, safety rods and rearview mirrors and notices were issued to their owners and operators by the RTO. In a similar drive conducted in February, 700 buses were checked out of which 248 were found lacking adequate safety measures.u00a0