VIJAYAWADA: A majority of private school managements in Vijayawada city are not taking any concrete measures to stop autorickshaws from carrying students beyond the seating capacity of the vehicle. In fact, the education department has given clear instructions to all schools to take the details of autos, check the licence of drivers and ensure that no autorickshaw is crammed with children. But almost all the schools in the city seem to have given up their responsibility in this regard.
Brazen violation of this safety rule came to light on Saturday when the transport department of Krishna district seized 16 autos, registered 56 cases during inspections.“For the safety of schoolchildren, we have made it mandatory for schools to maintain a record of the details of drivers, their licences and vehicles ferrying students. They are supposed to keep ID and residential proof of drivers. The safety of children is the responsibility of schools and parents. School management should have mobile numbers and other details of drivers of autos. Similarly, parents should ensure that vehicles carrying their children are not crammed,” said K Ravi Kumar, Deputy DEO of Krishna district.
Across Krishna district, there are hundreds of private schools but none of them has appointed a safety and vigilance official. Though the academic year started in June, schools do not seem to have thought it fit to take down the details of auto drivers. Speaking to TNIE, N Madhusudan, principal of a private school in the city, said, “It is absolutely important to keep a watch on vehicles carrying schoolchildren. For this purpose, we need at least 2-3 safety officials. Soon we will initiate steps in this direction though we have started the process of recording the details of students commuting by autos and other vehicles.”
T Yashoda, whose children travel to school by auto, says, “Everyday, I worry a lot about the safety of my children as the auto is crowded and the driver tends to drive in a rash manner. But I have no other optio, since the school bus doesn’t cover our area. I have frequent fights with the auto driver over this but to no avail.”
“As per rules, an auto should carry only six students and ‘five-in-all’ three-wheeler can ferry up to eight. But in most cases, auto drivers carry more than 10 children and adding to the weight are bags, which are left to hang from two sides of the vehicle. Today we conducted inspected autos and instructed school managements to comply with the instructions we gave them. We found 16 autos crowded with children and registered 56 cases,” said an RTA official.