On one hand where officials of the education board are still unaware of the number school bus transport committees formed by private schools for safer commute of students, the Regional Transport Office (RTO) has initiated action against bus operators for not following the school bus policy norms since yesterday
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
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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