Administration plans bus services for schools

If everything goes as planned the school students can look forward to easy ride to their campuses. Amidst the strike called by the private school van operators, the East Singhbhum deputy commissioner Amitabh Kaushal on Monday held a meeting with the local urban bodies-Jamshedpur Notified Area Committee (JNAC) special officer Dipak Sahay, district transport officer Sanjay Kujur and district superintendent of education, Indu Bhusan Ojha at the district collectorate and discussed on the possibilities of starting 'bus services' for the private schools in the city. 

“We want to use the city buses, brought under JNNURM project in the city for the schools. We have 50 such buses which are lying idle (since October 2014) due to lack of operators despite five tenders.  These buses can be used on school routes.  However, the schools will have to take the onus of bearing the operating cost of the buses,” said East Singhbhum deputy commissioner Amitabh Kaushal.

The 29-seat buses of Swaraj Mazda were procured as part of the JNNURM project in 2010. A meeting has been scheduled tomorrow between private school heads with the district superintendent of education, DTO and JNAC special officer at the district collectorate to seek school's opinion on the district administration proposal.

“We are working on the possibilities. Everything depends on the decision of the private schools representatives,” said DTO Sanjay Kujur. The DTO expected positive response from the schools as it is binding as part of their affiliation to ensure safe to and fro journey from school to home. Meanwhile, the agitating school vans drivers demonstrated in front of the district collectorate and threatened to disrupt the operation of school bus services as planned by the district administration on Monday. The van operators gathered at the DC office in morning and raised their issues. They complained that the traffic police along with district transport department are targeting the operators in the name of overloading and commercialisation of vehicles. The operators complained that the police were also exploiting them in the name of over loading and are demanding bribe.

It may be noted here that as mark of protest against the overloading check drive started by the district transport department and traffic police, the van operators on Thursday night had announced strike. The police recently carried raids at school vans seized their vehicles.