Students and parents on Friday faced a tough time as school vans operators went on an indefinite strike protesting police crackdown on overloaded vans.
The parents were seen driving their children to school on time in private vehicles in the absence of school vans resulting in traffic snarls especially in Sakchi, Bistupur, Northern Town, Dhatkidih and Kadma.
Since past two weeks, the traffic police along the district transport department are taking stern steps in preventing overloading of school vans in the city. The police have also seized several vans during the search. The police are acting against the van operators after receiving regular complains of city school vans being packed with students - their bags tied on the roof of the vehicles.
"I was caught in road snarl due to heavy traffic. I was stuck in Sakchi Straight Mile Road-Pipeline Road junction for nearly 40 minutes due to the jam," said a Ramesh Sahu, a resident of Burmamines. Students also faced problem due to the traffic jam. "I reached home at around 2.45pm. I had to go for private tuitions. The administration must take step to resolve the issue. It will be difficult to manage the situation everyday," said Rashmi Verghese, a student of Sacred Heart Convent and a resident of Sakchi.
School authorities though admitted of the traffic snarls but refuted that strike of rogue drivers had any impact on school attendance.
Traffic police are also not affected by the school vans strike. "We can never bow down under pressure. We will continue the crackdown. In fact our force was on the roads today morning too to nab the drivers. We have also deputed adequate force to control traffic jam on road," said DSP traffic Vivekanand Thakur.
Meanwhile the van operators have refused to accept the decision of the administration. They complained that on an average they receive only ` 500 to 700 per student and with an increase in prices of petrol and diesel they have no choice but to take more children.