Parents may have to take time off from work to drop their children to school and pick them up again on Thursday as the stalemate between the traffic police and Karnataka United School and Light Motor Vehicle Drivers’ Union is likely to enter its second day.
Many parents were affected as school cabs and vans did not show up to ferry children on Wednesday. However, in some cases, the drivers picked and dropped children home and asked parents to make their own arrangements for the next two days.
Vanita Raghavendra, a resident of Hosakerehalli, whose son studies in Class 9 at Carmel School in Padmanabhanagar said: “The van came as usual, but the driver informed us that he will not be there for two days. So, my son will have to go to school by auto.”
The Drivers’ Union went on a snap strike after traffic police cracked down on van drivers for various violations, including overcrowding, no yellow paint to identify them as school vans and fitness certificate violations.
“We cannot give any guarantee to parents that we will ferry their children. We are waiting for an assurance from the traffic police that they will not book our vehicles for violations,” said Shanmugam P S, president, Karnataka United School and Light Motor Vehicle Drivers’ Union.
The strike has put parents to a lot of hardship. “I had to take permission from work to come and pick up my daughter. If this strike continues, I won’t know what to do because I can’t keep taking off from work,’’ said a parent of a Class 1 student from Sacred Heart Girls High School on Museum Road.
This seems to be the situation across the city. Several parents left work to drop their children, said B Gayethri Devi, principal of Little Flower Public School, Hosakerehalli. “This must have put parents in a lot of discomfort. Some of them were informed in advance, so they dropped their children themselves,” she said.
About 30 per cent of parents in the three branches of Delhi Public School (DPS), who use private chartered services, were affected by the strike.
Parents have a few options
■ Some schools to extend their own bus services to affected children
■ BMTC offers its services to schools that ask for it
■ Parents forced to arrange own transport to drop children to schools
■ About 16,000 school vans did not ply on Wednesday
■ Stalemate to continue. The police rule out giving time for the school vans and cabs to comply with traffic and transportation rules