BHOPAL: Two days after four students and the bus driver of Delhi Public School-Indore were killed in a road mishap, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan met the bereaved families in Indore on Sunday.
The chief minister met the bereaved families in Khatiwala Tank area of Indore, including the kin of students Shruti Ludhiani, Harmeet Kaur, Swastik Pandya and Kriti Agrawal.
During the meeting with the CM, parents of one of the deceased students, Harmeet Kaur burst into anger, demanding the closure of DPS-Indore immediately. “We repeatedly rang the school on Friday evening to know about the actual condition, but no one answered to our calls at the school. CM Sir please ensure that this school is closed immediately,” demanded the tearful parents of Class III student Harmeet Kaur.
The deceased school girl Harmeet’s parents were particularly angry with reported statements of regional transport officer (RTO-Indore) MP Singh, who was seen smiling on camera on Saturday, dubbing the incident as a mere haadsa (accident).
Acting in the matter, the CM ordered the immediate removal of MP Singh as RTO Indore and also a magisterial probe in the entire accident. The probe will be completed in 15 days.
“Action has been taken against some persons as per preliminary enquiry, but those found wanting in the matter during the magisterial enquiry will be dealt with equal severity,” Chouhan told newspersons after meeting the injured students at Indore’s Bombay Hospital.
The CM also ordered that any bus which has surpassed 15 years life, will not be allowed to be used as school bus anywhere in the state.
He also said that plans are afoot to end the manual system of fitness test of vehicles at RTO offices, by developing an automated system for it. He also said that a centralized monitoring system will be put in place in the state which will link upgraded speed governors with GPS system of school buses to keep a tab on their speed.
“We are limiting the speed of school buses of 40 kilometres per hour and action would be taken against the driver if the speed was found above the set parameters,” the CM said. “A committee of school and management and parents would be formed in every school to discuss and implement issues, including bus fees and other facilities. Parents can complain directly to the government if they were not satisfied with any decision of the school.”
The CM’s visit came a day after, the Indore police arrested three persons, including Chetan Kumawat, the motor section in-charge of DPS-Indore for failing to put in order the technical snags in the bus, which were being complained since weeks by parents of children.
Four persons, including Kumawat, the deceased bus driver Rahul Sisodiya and two men associated with the private agency that had installed the speed governor in the killer bus were booked on Friday by Indore police for culpable homicide not amounting to murder under Section 304 of IPC at the Kanadiya police station.
The Indore police’s primary investigations had revealed on Saturday that the DPS-Indore bus was being driven by driver Rahul at 70 kmph-plus speed, despite the speed governor having been regulated to run the bus at the speed of not more than 40 kmph. Despite, the faulty speed governor, the RTO Indore office had given a favorable fitness certificate to the bus for a year on December 26, 2017.
On Saturday, the state’s home and transport minister Bhupendra Singh had issued directions, fixing 40 kmph as the speed limit for school and educational institution buses in the state.
Four DPS-Indore students, identified as Shruti Ludhiani, Harmeet Kaur, Kriti Agrawal and Swastik Pandya, besides the bus driver Rahul Sisodiya were killed when the DPS-Indore bus rammed into the truck coming from opposite direction on Indore’s Bichauli Habsi bypass on Friday evening.
Three students and the bus cleaner, continue to be critical and on ventilator at the Bombay Hospital, where a team of surgeons from Mumbai will perform some very critical surgeries on one of the students Devik Wadhwani on Monday.