School going students and their parents faced inconvenience due to ongoing strike of the Uttarakhand School Van Association in the State capital.
The association members have been protesting for the last two days against recent police action against them and delay in approving taxi permits to vans. Around 450 school vans are operational in the State capital and these vans ferry around 5,000 school children daily. leaving all their necessary works, many parents were seen waiting outside school campus to ferry their children when school hours were about to be over. At Summer Valley School, after school hours, many children were seen outside school waiting for their parents. Suman of Raipur said that his mother had reached the school yesterday on time, but she would come to the school 20 minutes late after school hours. He used to travel by school van daily.
Sohan Bisht, a parent, said that police should act against school van owners after consulting RTO official. "What would van owners do if the Government does not issue permitsIJ" he asked. A parent who was waiting at the St Joseph Academy, Rajpur Road, said that she has been ferrying her child daily for the past two days as school vans are not operating in the city. "Most drivers or school van operators belong to lower sections of the society and get into the business of ferrying school kids due to compulsion. Moreover, schools charge heavy fees due to which most of the lower-middle class parents cannot afford to pay more for school bus," said Rajendra Rana, a resident of Sahastradhara.
The Association president Sachin Gupta said that the Association has been protesting for the past two days against police action and RTO officers who are responsible for delaying approval of taxi permits to school vans even though the Government has directed the officers to send proposal for the same. According to him, RTO officer has given written assurance on Wednesday that the form for taxi permits for the school van will be available from Thursday. If police do not impose challans on van drivers for another 20 days, they will be able to operate their vans and school children will ferried from Thursday. To address their concerns, Dehradun SSP Kewal Khurana has called a meeting with them on Wednesday evening. The meeting was on while this report was being filed.
Gupta accused that the local traffic police of harassing them. "Many of the youths who earn by driving school vans are being unnecessarily troubled by the local police," he said. Other Association members alleged that the school van drivers were even being exploited even if they were abiding by all traffic rules. "Drivers are asked to stop and they are issued chalans for using the vehicle for commercial purpose."