Police have no info on rogue drivers of school vans

Safety of schoolchildren may be of utmost importance, but traffic police stations in the City do not seem to be maintaining statistics of repeat violations of safety norms by drivers of school vehicles.

During the inquiry before the Upa Lokayukta on school vehicles flouting rules, the Transport Department submitted that there was no information about repeat offenders. However, as an exception, the High Grounds traffic police station has maintained a list of 96 repeat offenders, but the report about only one driver has been sent to the Transport Department.

A complaint was filed with the Upa Lokayukta on private school vans violating rules, especially in and around Central Business District. The complaint filed by Ambedkar Yuva Sene, stated that more than 3,000 private school vans ply on St Marks Road and Residency Road and majority of them carry children in violation of rules and recent High Court directions.

The complainant had sought information about cases filed for violation of rules by owners and drivers of school vans and buses in the jurisdiction of 20 traffic police stations. These police stations are Jayanagar, High Grounds, RT Nagar, KR Puram, Hebbal, Mico Layout, Chamarajpet, Yeshwantpur, Basavanagudi, Kumaraswamy Layout, Pulakeshinagar, Indiranagar, Banashankari, Jalahalli, Kengeri, Yelahanka, Shivajinagar, Magadi Road, Ulsoor and Banasawadi.

The complainant on Thursday submitted that these police stations, which have a large number of schools in their jurisdiction, have not furnished the full information. These police stations have booked 5,329 cases against errant school vans and buses.

“Even in High Grounds Police Station, though there are 96 repeat offenders, only one is shown as repeat offender. If there are repeat offenders, such persons would face disqualification of permit for transportation of schoolchildren,” Upa Lokayukta Justice Subhash B Adi said.

“The complainant also stated that there is no co-ordination between the Transport Department and the Police Department as the Transport Department doesn’t have the correct information as regard to the number of repeated offenders. Unless both the departments work in co-ordination, it will not be possible to enforce the directions of the Supreme Court,” Justice Adi said.

Upa Lokayukta has directed the City Police Commissioner M N Reddi to furnish the action taken report on the number of cases registered, number of repeat offenders in 20 police stations and action taken against them. The Upa Lokayukta directed the Police Commissioner to submit the action taken report before March 19.