Five school buses of local St. Thomas Convent School, seized during the joint drive of RTO, police and administration on Saturday on the charge of over–loading and drunk driving, were released after the management of the school deposited the requisite fine on Monday. While informing this, the assistant regional transport officer Dwarika Prasad, however, declined to divulge the exact amount paid as penalty.
The locals said that though the practice of the buses carrying more students than the permitted capacity continuing for years, neither RTO nor police had taken any action against the rampant violation of the traffic rules with the children of highly placed officials studying in the school. The aggrieved parents said that their wards were facing the risk despite them paying the management over Rs six hundred per month as the charges. Soon after the penalty was paid, the school administration asked the parents to make their own arrangement to bring the students to the school and to take them back after the classes are over. The management said that from now onwards, the school buses would carry the students according to the number of seats available in them.
Pauri police CO D S Tomar had said that in course of the joint traffic drive by police and RTO, three buses of the school had been seized by RTO while two others by the police.
The police and transport department has been launching a joint drive for the past few days to curb the tendency of the buses and other public vehicles of carrying more people than the permitted limits and also of reckless and drunk driving and riding two-wheelers sans helmets. It is learnt that during such drives being conducted by police alone, 39 vehicles have been seized from Pauri, Srinagar and Kotdwar for fifteen days starting from May 1.