Many school buses plying on the roads in Ranchi are in poor condition endangering lives of hundreds of schoolchildren. The district transport department has circulated a notice in every school demanding them to evict their busses which are running for over 15 years.
The worried transport department recently conducted a survey in 16 schools and found that about 14, 414 students in the city are availing of school buses. The schools have engaged 137 buses for students out of which 30 of them are not in good condition.
District Transport Officer (DTO) Ranchi, Rajesh Kumar said, “We are keeping a close check on school busses, obeying the Supreme Court’s order have circulated a notice in every school asking them to remove their busses which are more than 15 years old and are in sorry condition at the earliest. The school authority has asked for time suspension up to this financial year. Discussions are going on and it is expected that soon will come up which a concrete solution.”
He further added, “I have written to District Commissioner (DC) regarding the matter and have plead him to look into the matter.” DC Ranchi, Vinay Kumar Choubey said, “I had received a letter from DTO and are looking into the matter seriously. I had planned to conduct a meeting with the authorities within this week to discuss on every aspect of the matter and after it will decide on our next move.”
“We have asked the DTO to seize the permit of those busses which are unfit. Then only schools will relinquish the old buses as it an important step from students safety point of view and have also asked to conduct a fitness test of the busses soon,” said City Traffic SP, Rajeev Ranjan Singh.Delhi Public School (DPS) Principal J Mohanty said, “It is not possible for us to immediately remove the busses so have asked a year time from the administration. We will hold a meeting with parents to find a solution of it.”
“It is not easy to discard the busses within a short span of time and buy new busses as school do have enough funds for it. Moreover shuffle in transport facilities will lead to rise in transportation fees. We cannot hike the price to a great extend so all this changes needs a planning and for this we require sufficient time. We have to discuss with the parents and administration on the matter and then only can come up with a permanent solution,” said AK Singh Principal of JVM Shyamli.