Thursday, 03 March 2022 | PNS | Dehradun
The National Association for Parents and Students Rights (NAPSR) has written a letter to the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR) to ensure the implementation of guidelines issued by the Supreme Court (SC) for the safety of students in school buses. The association has written the letter considering the recent accident in Vikasnagar area in which a 12-year-old school girl lost her life after the school bus allegedly crashed into a tree. The association has leveled allegations against the authorities concerned for being negligent towards the regular monitoring of school buses. The president of the association Arif Khan said that the SC has issued guidelines for the operation of school buses and a monitoring committee has also been set up in every state which include the members from the education department but despite that, the department here has failed to take any cognisance of the operation of the school buses. Such negligence led to the recent accident in Vikasnagar in which a young girl lost her life while another school boy got seriously injured after the school bus which has the capacity to carry only 42 students was carrying about 70 students, alleged Khan. He said that the police and transport department initially give some attention to the operation of school buses by conducting various checks after such big accidents but it does not last longer. “Though the police have filed a case against the driver and the school administration in the Vikasnagar area accident, authorities should focus on the fact that it is actually the school management that allows the operation of buses without proper maintenance while stuffing students in them like animals. Also, what happened to the protocol of following physical distancing? The school has violated several laws and the authorities should take strict action against the management,” said Khan.In order to avoid recurrence of such accident in future, NAPSR has appealed to SCPCR to issue orders to the authorities concerned to conduct proper investigation under the Protection of Child Rights Act and to check the arbitrariness of schools as well as to the departments concerned to implement the guidelines of the Supreme Court. Khan informed that the union has also written to the district magistrate of Dehradun and chief education officer besides SCPCR to ensure the strict adherence of the guidelines issued by SC for school buses.
