Many school students take to unsafe modes of transport in Chennai
Posted on: 03/Sep/2018 9:51:45 AM
It is common to see school students travelling in autos, cabs etc these days in the Chennai city. The reason for this is because of drop in the school vans or school buses operated by the educational institutions. This travelling in autos, cabs or other modes of transport is considered unsafe for the students. In the past 5 years, the number of newly registered school and college buses has reduced to half. Moreover the there are many educational institutions that are not showing keen interest to increase their existing fleet by adding more vehicles. There are few schools in Chennai that have reduced the frequency of the existing buses and merged the routes also. It is shocking to mention that more than 6400 school buses were booked for overloading in the last 3 years.
It is clear that the school management do not want to take �extra risk� and the school bus fees collected from the parents were not enough to maintain the vehicles. The special cell consists of transport, education and police departments and this special cell inspects and renews fitness certificates of the buses is known. It is now revealed that the schools could not maintain the criteria set by this special cell.
President of TN Private Matriculation Schools Association spoke about how the parents want the school buses to drop their kids directly in the houses. Many issues arise when longer routes were taken by the school buses. It was brought out that the share autos, cabs etc pick and drop the students at cheaper rates when compared to the school buses. Hence the parents prefer these modes of transport.
According to the state president of TN Students Parent�s Welfare Association, most of the schools were least bothered about the students travelling safely. The basic details about the private auto drivers who pick up the students outside the school premises were not maintained by the schools.
