Blame game begins over Telangana bus driver’s fitness
HYDERABAD: Telangana Road Transport Authority (RTA) officials stated that the maximum age for any driver for a school or college should not exceed 60 years.
“It’s as good as driving without a driver’s licence,” said T Ragunath, Joint Transport Commissioner, RTA Hyderabad. For normal private buses there is no age limit but for school and college buses the age limit is 60. He is not fit for driving a school or college bus, it’s the fault of the college but a complaint needs to be filed for action that needs to be taken,” he added.
No mechanism to automatically cancel licence
The RTA does not have a mechanism to keep a tab on overage drivers. “They should be having a licence and the moment they touch 60 years, it should be automatically withdrawn but am not sure if RTA is doing it. They should be able to do it through their IT department. We will try take up this issue with transport office,” said a senior official with Hyderabad Traffic Police.
College management was unaware of rules
The college management uses the bus on hire basis. The management maintains that the driver had a valid driving license. On the other hand, the bus owner, Bhaskar Reddy when contacted said: “I have hired him for the college bus based on recommendation from other drivers. I hired him to drive the bus on Thursday.” Both the college authorities and the bus owner were unaware of the RTA age limit for school and college bus drivers.
Parents association blame government
“This is yet another example of government authorities failing to implement rules with respect to schools. It seems that the government is bothered more about protecting the school’s commercial interests instead of the interests of parents or students,” said Ashish Naradi, executive member of Hyderabad Parents Association.
Retired drivers union blames paltry pension
One must understand that the blame does not rest with the drivers alone. They hardly get 5,000 as pension and this amount is not enough for anyone to survive. Most of the drivers don’t have much savings and this forces them to find some form of employment even at the age of 60,” said Nageshwara Rao, president, TSRTC retired employees union.