Government’s plan to start a dedicated bus service for college girl students in remote areas to check dropout rate and improve enrollments in colleges is hanging in balance. The proposal was to be initiated in select women’s colleges affiliated under different State-owned universities from November 2017. The State government in March 2017 announced the woman bus service plan for college goers.
The officials of State run universities have written to the concerned department of the State government to revise the women bus service proposal taking into the consideration the points put forward by the bus agency owners/ operators.
According to RU CCDC – Girija Nath Shahdeo, the universities till date have received no response from the government’s side on this issue. “Not just RU but other State varsities too await revised proposal from government to start women bus service. The universities have written to the concerned department a while ago describing in details the outcome of the meetings conducted with the bus agency owners/operators over the time to start the women bus service at the respective colleges,” Shahdeo added.
He said that despite attempts from the institution level, none of the bus agencies came forward for operation and maintenance (O&M) of all women college buses, irrespective of giving them assurance to modify a few operational clauses soon.
“Constant re-tendering was done to rope in competent bus operators, yet, none of the bus agencies here turned up. Even after conducting a series of meetings with a few bus operators, they are not ready to agree to the clauses of the government and have demanded to alter the guidelines as prescribed by the Government,” he added.
Similarly, the officials of other universities like Sido-Kanhu, Nilamber-Pitamber gave the same version on the matter. “Details were uploaded on university website about the women bus service proposal but due to stringent clause in O&M, the university has shelved the plan and awaits the revised proposal from the government’s side. As soon as the modified proposal is received, the project will be started,” said an official of Nilambar-Pitamber University.
As per the State government clause, all five State-owned universities were expected to complete the tender procurement process for roping in the suitable bidders after the detailed modalities of the project was prepared in the first phase. Moreover, the bus operators in accordance to the government’s plan were supposed to lend 180 days full-time service to the university but none of the bus operators were ready to take up the project for merely 180 days considering the loss that will be incurred upon them for the remaining days.
The State government has ordered that the women bus service will be utilized only for ferrying students and not for any other business mode. In the meantime, RU had also approached Indian Institute of Management (IIM-R) officials for discussing the viabilities of operating buses.
A monthly fee of Rs. 100 per student was fixed as the charging amount for availing the bus service which was likely to cover approximately 25 Km distance. A proposal to expand the bus service plan to the PG departments of the university was also tabled.