Poor turnout of parents marred an interaction meeting to discuss the education department proposal to start schools in Bangalore at 8:30 am.
Only a handful of teachers turned up at the meeting organised by Karnataka Parents Association.  Finally, the invitees who included officials from the education and police departments and BMTC had to be contend with putting forth their views sans any discussion.
DCP (Traffic-West) Ramasubba said the vehicular traffic in Bangalore had increased from three lakh in 1986 to 27 lakh in 2006. But there has been no change in the condition of roads and the time taken to reach any destination has tripled in the last few years.
He said staggering school timings was the only solution to ease the traffic congestion during peak hours.
DDPI Bangalore North Deva Prakash said staggering school timings would take care of the safety aspect of children. The Parents Association has suggested that the weekly holiday for schools can be on a day other than Sunday.  In larger schools, students may be permitted to arrive  between 8:30 am and 10:30 am.