Education dept to create awareness on bus safety rules….Dipti Nagpaul-D’Souza
Following a school bus accident last month in which an 8-year-old boy died, the state education department has decided to create awareness among all the stakeholders about the school bus safety norms. The department has issued a circular to the office of deputy director of school education, asking it to conduct special workshops from December for schools authorities, parents association and even RTO officials.
On November 23, Viraj Parmar, a Class III student of Shreevallabh Ashram school in Sion, died after he was hit by a hoarding while leaning out of a window of his school bus. The police investigations revealed that the bus drivers licence had expired and there were at least eight other violations of school bus policy norms. They also learnt that the school bus was parked in a no parking zone, which is the case with 90 per cent of school buses in the city.
The incident highlighted confusion over the norms to be followed by school bus owner/contractors, school management and RTO officials.
An official from the deputy directors office said, We received a copy of the circular on Wednesday. It says that workshops to create awareness on the school bus safety norms should be conducted in Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai and Raigad. According to the circular, we are supposed to start this exercise from December, however, we are yet to finalise the dates for the same. We will also have to identify the locations to conduct these workshops.
The circular states that during the workshop, the authorities of the department will have to read out the points mentioned in the latest GR issued on June 2011 on school bus safety norms and various guidelines to be implemented.
Anil Garg, president of the School Bus Owners Association (SBOA), said, There is confusion among RTO officials over these norms. Conducting such workshops will be of great help to us and will clear many doubts.
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