We want to strike to create awareness: School bus owners body's president

If the upcoming school exams werenrsquot stressful enough parents now have one more thing to worry about the possibility of private school buses going on strike from April 1 during exam time The final decision on the strike will be made on March 28 but if it does happen it will be an allIndia movement Safety rods are installed on the windows of this school bus Anil Garg President School Bus Ownerrsquos Association SBOA Maharashtra claimed ldquoWe are getting calls from bus owners from all over the country urging for a mass strike We want to go on strike to create public awareness because this isnrsquot only our problem It is everybodyrsquos problem There are 9000 private school buses in the city The future of school buses is very badrdquo School children crowd into an autorickshaw during a strike by school buses in December 2011 The interview There was a High Court order stating that you are an essential service and cannot go on strike We are not an official essential service We are serving the public but we are private businessmen And it is not as if we are getting any benefits of being an essential service Doctors teachers and railway officials are essential services even they have gone on strike We would have done this earlier too but we always think of the children and then we do not go on strike Anil Garg President School Bus Ownerrsquos Association Maharashtra PicPradeep Dhivar If you go on strike how would the children manage What can I say The government has to bother about that Why this sudden decision to go on strike Firstly insurance companies have increased the premium for third party insurance This is a type of insurance where if an accident takes place the insurance company will pay the passengers not us We donrsquot get anything They have done this across all vehicles so even parents who own cars or bikes have to pay more now Parents too should protest Secondly diesel prices have been increased by R15 per litre in the last year and by R2 more from yesterday Thirdly the government has also hiked the tax we have to pay per seat from R100 to R1900 All these come into force from April 1 These additional rules are an attack on the individual not just school bus owners Children board a school van PicRane Ashish To recover these costs you will have to hike the school bus fee Obviously Wersquoll have to hike it by 67 per cent We can hike the fee and continue to run services but then how will we create public awareness The public will have to pay the increased fee We are businessmen we are not sitting here to do charity We have been fighting for the past two years If we hadnrsquot fought we would have had to increase our fee to R2500 per month by now Current fee varies from school to school but on an average it is R800 per month Has any government official approached you to discuss your plans for a strike No one has called They will wake up only on April 1 When the school or the parents hire a bus who is responsible for the safety of the children in the bus The school is a mediator between the bus owner and the parents If the bus owner runs away somewhere some liability falls on the school since they have appointed him Otherwise the bus owner is responsible But when buses are hired by parents nobody will take responsibility When schools purchase buses and give them to you for operating who is responsible for the childrenrsquos safety School is responsible because they have chosen the contractor and the contractor is appointing the drivers and cleaners Thatrsquos why they donrsquot want to purchase the bus A recent survey by Regional Transport Offices RTO in Mumbai revealed that fewer than 60 per cent buses owned by private operators were safe There were no safety grilles or firefighting equipment It also found around 95 per cent of school owned buses are safe Safety grilles are not required Rods are required The RTO officers donrsquot know what they are talking about They are working in the interest of manufacturers Whatever they are asking us to fit speed governors cameras safety grilles it is only in the interest of the manufacturers Speed governors all over India cost between R3000 and R4000 each Only in Maharashtra it costs Rs 12000 to Rs15000 Why The Central Government has given time till 2014 to install them with a maximum speed of 80 km per hour The state government wants it now and that too with a maximum speed of 40 km per hour Even then we will install everything they want us to install But who will suffer in the end Parents They will have to bear the extra cost Chai mein jitni shakkar dalenge utni meethi banegiThe tea will be as sweet as the amount of sugar you mix in it The private schoolsrsquo own buses Our contractors run those buses What about firefighting equipment in the buses They are already installed in all the buses The government has given a wrong statement about this In an aeroplane with 194 seats there are only six cylinders of 2 kgs capacity each Here when seating capacity is around 20 they want cylinders of 5 kg capacity each A cylinder of 5 kg capacity weighs around 85 kg I challenge you even you canrsquot pick up a cylinder that heavy How are you going to spray that in the bus Do you have drivers and attendants who are trained in using the equipment We give them training all the time What about checking the driver We know their backgrounds completely But you canrsquot check their character because that can change after 10 years We are not astrologers or face readers to know that after five years he is going to do this nonsense molest or rape children on the bus What about lady attendants According to the Supreme Court the school has to supply the lady attendant We tell the schools to supply they tell us to supply Later they complain lsquoThis lady is too dark in complexion change herrsquo or lsquoThis one doesnrsquot know ABCDrsquo If she knew ABCD and was a graduate why will she work here The Education Department has sent a circular that the lady attendant should speak English Hindi Marathi and she should have passed her Std XII exams Do you think anybody will send their daughter to work with drivers and cleaners It is better that they will work in the malls where they get R1000015000 salary per month Here small kids say lsquoOh you are so dark donrsquot touch mersquo It is an insult Now school buses have to be painted yellow right No There are three kinds of buses the first is only school bus which has to be yellow in colour the second is school and company bus which can be in any colour and you have to only put a yellow strip the third are buses with a Bombay region permit these buses can go anywhere in Mumbai and can be in any colour When buses are parked outside schools during pick up and drop times they cause congestion on the roads which makes it difficult for normal traffic It doesnrsquot happen because of school buses it happens because illegal school vans small private vehicles are many These vehicles are all parked outside schools They are allowed by the government if they follow certain conditions they have to paint the vehicle yellow which they are doing maximum number of children they can take is nine but they take even 16 they carry children above 12 years old which they are not allowed to do any driver of a public transport vehicle has to have a badge issued by the RTO and an experience of five years but young 1617 year olds are driving these vehicles and that too without the khaki uniform which is the official dress code This happens under the nose of traffic officers Even parents who hire these vans are not aware they are illegal What are your plans for the next academic year Stop the buses We are not interested If the government wants to play this game we know our own game to play They cannot run even BEST buses properly Have you noticed BEST buses only have paper stickers mentioning the destination now And they are asking us to put the name of the school on the bus Viewpoint Raj Aloni Principal Ramsheth Thakur Public School Kharghar We have our own school buses and we operate them ourselves The school peons are in charge of cleaning the bus and one of our lady teachers travels in the bus We also appoint the drivers directly so they are on our payroll This way we have hold over the functioning We canrsquot rely on private contractors Their cleaners are very bad and they donrsquot pay the conductors well We run the buses as a service so that students will come to school not for profit Our buses are new and we charge only between R500 and R700 per month Private contractors charge more If a parent is not at the stop to pick up a child private contractors simply drop the child on the road We donrsquot do that You can tell an outside contractor repeatedly but they wonrsquot spend money on safety or refill the fire extinguishers in the bus on time Jayant Jain President Forum for Fairness in Education It is mandatory for all schools to have a transport committee consisting of the school principal the bus contractor a member of the Parent Teacher Association PTA and an RTO official Bus operators hike the fee with the consent of management they donrsquot consult the PTA They simply inform the PTA there are no meetings organised to debate the issue Whenever rules have been implemented they increase the fee They increased it last July then again in August September then again in the last couple of months in the name of safety Before they start the academic year theyrsquoll increase it again Schools appoint those bus owners who give the most cut to the school management The High Court has ordered that the buses cannot go on strike if they do so it will be contempt of court The court had recommended they be listed as an Essential Service but it hasnrsquot been done so yet If they go on strike there will be chaos Children come from remote areas where there are no autos or taxis Many children from Borivli and Dadar attend schools in Santacruz How will they reach school Why are they victimising childrenu00a0