Parents join school bus owners to drive illegal buses out of Mumbai

With little or no help coming from the education as well as transport departments in ensuring a complete ban on illegal vans and buses ferrying school children the School Bus Ownersrsquo Association SBOA has taken it upon themselves to set things rightRepresentatives of the Unaided Schoolsrsquo Forum said that schools are unhappy with vans and autorickshaws as they do not follow any safety norms Pic for representationFor starters the bus owners have contacted schools across the city to ensure that students are only ferried by operators with legal permits They have also contacted the PTA United Forum to dissuade parents from depending on illegal operatorsStudentsrsquo safetySpeaking to midday Anil Garg president of SBOA said ldquoThe education and transport departments keep pushing the blame on each other and because of that nothing has changed in the last three years Ultimately it is the bus owners who get blamed for not following rules and regulations while these illegal vans and buses keep getting awayrdquoAlso Read Parents get ready to cough up higher school bus feeHe added that even school principals have agreed to fight against illegal busvan operators ldquoWe need to think of studentsrsquo safety even though the government doesnrsquot seem interestedrdquo Garg saidWhile there is no official number on how many illegal vans are functioning in the city right now SBOA alleges that over 8000 exist in the Mumbai metropolitan region mdash with every school having at least 1015 illegal vansbuses ferrying childrenAbsolving itself of any other responsibility the education department has stated how their only task is to ensure that schools have a School Management Committee SMC for the implementation of the safety policy Nand Kumar principal secretary of state education department said ldquoWe have asked schools to make sure their SMC is in place so that transport operators donrsquot flout rules rest of the implementation falls on the transport departmentrdquoOn Monday SBOA members met representatives of the Unaided Schoolsrsquo Forum as well as the PTA United Forum S C Kedia honorary secretary of Unaided Schoolsrsquo Forum said ldquoSchools are very unhappy with the vans and autorickshaws especially because they donrsquot follow any safety norms and neither do they have female attendantsRead Story Molestation cases rise in Mumbai parents schools bus owners slug it outWe have often requested parents to go for only those buses which have permits but the parents have a mind of their ownrdquo He added that since they cannot compel parents to opt for school buses only they would ensure that parents are repeatedly informed about the problems of not opting for legally plying vehiclesAs of now the SBOA members have decided against the strike and are planning to take their fight against illegal vansbuses to the government once again ldquoThis is not the first time we have approached the government with this problem and this will not be the last But we hope to find a solution soonrdquo said Deepak Naik another bus operatorHistory of the issueIn November 2013 the state school education department had issued a government resolution GR entrusting principals with the responsibility of transporting school children safely and prohibited autorickshaws and taxis from ferrying children to schoolHowever Rajendra Darda the then state education minister stayed this GR on November 26 following opposition from school managements An association of school principals had also threatened to boycott SSC and HSC board examinations if the GR was not cancelledIn December 2013 this GR was announced cancelled on the floor of the state assembly Till date there has been no clarity on the policy