RTOs to act tough on school bus regulations

The policy on transport of school children will be strictly implemented by the Regional Transport Offices in the State from January 2017.

BHUBANESWAR: The policy on transport of school children will be strictly implemented by the Regional Transport Offices (RTOs) in the State from January 2017. While the RTOs in the Twin City have already started its enforcement, implementation of the policy will be extended to other parts of the State within a month.

Addressing a workshop on the policy here on Sunday, Bhubaneswar RTO-II Sanjay Behera said under no condition, overloading of school buses or vans will be permitted. Every school bus shall have an attendant while transporting students and a valid conductor licence granted under the Odisha Motor Vehicles Rules, the policy states. Autorickshaws and mini-vans which continue to ferry children perilously will need to fit holding hangers, safety grills, first aid box and fire extinguishers in the vehicles.

The drivers must have minimum five years of driving experience and should not have been penalised for traffic offence more than twice in a year, he informed. Every school will have to form a transport committee comprising local police, school representative, motor vehicle inspector and member of parents-teacher association.

There shall be a district-level inter-departmental committee to discuss and decide on matters pertaining to safety of children and their transportation. The district-level committee will have RTO, Deputy SP, District Educational Officer and MVIs as members.

Besides, speed governors and GPS devices will be made mandatory in school buses, Khurda Collector Niranjan Sahoo said. The speakers urged the public to make extensive use of the mobile application ‘Ame Prahari’ and post pictures of any form of traffic norm violation. Since its launch in the last month, the application has been downloaded by more than 1000 smart phone users and at least 200 law violators have been detected, RTO sources informed. Traffic officials, school and college authorities, representatives from parents-teachers associations and officials from Transport Department were present.

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