BHUBANESWAR: The State government on Tuesday directed the State Transport Authority (STA) to conduct special drives to check the movement of school buses and ensure that those are plying as per the rules.
Appreciating the special drive conducted by RTOs throughout the State from April 20 to 26 when more than 1,200 cases of the violations were detected, Principal Secretary of Transport department Bishnupada Sethi has asked the Transport Commissioner to carry out such enforcement activities in regular intervals.
For safe transportation of students to school/college and back to home, he said, the State Government has notified a ‘Policy on Transportation of School Children-2016’. “Students are the most vulnerable road users. Therefore, safety of the students on journey to school is one of the top priorities of the department and officials should remain vigilant to ensure safety of the students while going to educational institutions and returning,” he said.
In order to encourage vehicle owners to comply with the policy guidelines, Sethi said there is need for conducting special drives in regular intervals, so that the violators would think twice before violating the rules. The direction came following complaints that many vehicles are not complying with the traffic rules. The Transport Commissioner has been urged to conduct a special drive for a week against traffic rule violation next week and submit a report.