213 school buses booked for violating safety norms

After giving adequate time to make school buses safer for schoolchildren, the State transport department has started cracking its whip against those failing to implement the safety measures.

On Wednesday, the State transport department teams checked 788 school buses and booked 213 buses for not implementing the measures and another 41 buses were seized for violating safety norms. The department also lodged police complaints against two schools in the City for failing to ensure safety of children in school buses. One of the schools is located on St Mark’s Road while the other is in Sahakarnagar.

Incidentally, the matter of safety of children travelling in school buses gained importance after several incidents of children getting injured and even killed due to lack of safety measures in school buses in the City.

Speaking with Deccan Herald, Narendra Holkar, Joint Commissioner, Transport department, said: “The idea of booking cases against school buses is to send a strong message across, so that all school buses which are yet to comply with the safety guidelines should do so at the earliest. There is no way that children’s safety can be compromised,” he added. He said the drive will continue in the days to come.

Most of the buses, which were booked on Wednesday, had no first-aid kits, fire extinguishers and some of them even had their rear windows broken.