The Delhi Traffic Police has held lack of permits responsible for rampant traffic violations by school buses and cabs, thus putting the safety of schoolchildren at risk.
According to the traffic police, the actual requirement of the school cabs and buses is 20,000, while only 8,700 permits have been issued by the Transport Department. This mammoth gap offers an opportunity to the cab operators to overcrowd their vehicles beyond the permissible limit, compromising the lives of the innocent children.
The Delhi Traffic Police took up the matter with Transport Department to plug in the gap. “With rampant violations of overcrowding, there is an urgent requirement to issue more permits to the vehicles transporting lakhs of schoolchildren across the city. At present, a total of 6,000 permits have been issued to the school buses, while another 2,780 permits have been issued to the maxi-cabs,” said Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Anil Shukla.
According to the rules, the carrying capacity of the school cab shall be limited to one and half times of the seating capacity stated in registration certificate. However, the norms laid down are violated in most of the cases, leading to traffic violations. This is evident from the fact that the offenses caused by the school buses and vans have doubled this year compared to last year during the same period. “Till June last year, the total number of school cab and vans prosecutions were 812, while the number has doubled to 1,750 this year. Out of these, 469 vehicles were impounded for permit violations. The figures include the arrest of nine drivers for causing grave violations,” he added.
The transport department on the other hand, said that there is no cap on the number of permits issued to the school cabs and that it was taking necessary steps for issuing more permits to the school cabs. "The department has no reservations in issuing permits to new vehicles. The department is also in the process of preparing a scheme for the private cabs to be registered as school cabs. The scheme, which will soon be finalised will then be sent to the transport ministry for approval," said transport commissioner, Puneet Goyal. Officials added that the scheme will allow the private cabs to operate as school cabs during school hours, if they comply to the safety requirements.