New norms for ferrying school kids next year

The Regional Transport Office (RTO) will come out with new norms and guidelines for ferrying school children in auto’s, vans and buses in city from the next academic year, said Regional Transport Officer Siddappa Kallera.

Talking to reporters on the sidelines of the Transport Adalat held at his office here on Monday, he said the RTO has temporarily stopped acting tough on the auto drivers and schools vans violating the guidelines in ferrying children - in exceeding the number of children against the limit and other violations. “During the drive against the violation, we booked about 57 cases on auto drivers for carrying more than six children. However, there were several appeals made by the parents to temporarily halt the drive till they make alternative arrangements. Many parents feared safe return of their children if they change the mode of transport at this juncture.

The RTO said they gave a patient hearing to the parents’ woes and decided to halt the drive temporarily till next academic year. ‘We have elaborate plans to issue strict fresh guidelines and norms to work for the safe journey of children. The RTO would hold discussions with the police department, the school managements to come out with a strict adherence to the new norms’, the RTO disclosed.

Deputy Commissioner of Transport Narayan Swamy said the school managements would be asked to cooperate with the department for the success of implementation of Transport rules. He said the department would recommend the school managements to opt for Global Positioning System(GPS) to track the movement of their school buses and vans and keep an eye on its speed and other matters. It would help ensuring safe commuting for the kids, Narayan Swami remarked.

He said the RTO planned to introduce one line system to keep the middlemen at bay and hassle-free service for the public once all the existing records were updated to online software. It would avail for a visitor to make a hassle-free entry at a point and exit at another without any hiccups.

Earlier, the Narayana Swamy and Kallera gave a patient hearing to the complaints and woes of the public. On auto drivers’ plea seeking more gas refilling stations, the officials said the RTO would write to oil companies to study the feasibility of setting up more station and also provide the RTO office the details the number of vehicles each of the outlets can refill on a single day.

Rajanna, president of Aadarsh Auto and Taxi Drivers Union alleged harassment by the RTO officials to provide the driving licenses. The transport adalats were of no help to the aggrieved, he said.  He also urged for information of bus routes in Braille at the bus stands. The RTO assured to communicate the grievance to the KSRTC office.