Editor,
Through the columns of your esteemed and widely circulating newspaper I would like to draw the kind attention of the concerned authorities towards the matter of safety of school students in school buses. Nowadays most students travel to school and back on school buses. Hence it is the duty of the schools as well as of the respective authorities to take responsibility for their safety.
I am putting forward the following points for school bus safety rules which every parent should ensure, before sending their children to school by Bus.
School buses should be painted yellow. There should be a signpost of “School Bus” both, on the front and back of the bus along with the name of the school and its address. If it is a hired bus, “On School Duty” should be clearly visible.
Details of the driver (name, address, license number, badge number), school contact number, transport department’s helpline number, vehicle registration number should be displayed at prominent places inside and outside the bus in contrast colours.
School Buses should have a First Aid Box and Fire Extinguisher which should be routinely checked for expiry dates. Also, driver, conductor, lady attendant/guard should be well trained to use them.
Global Positioning System (GPS), CCTV cameras and white lighting should be installed inside the bus. These instruments should be in working condition all the time.
School Buses should be tailored with speed ruler with maximum speed limit of 40 km/h. The school bus should possess alarm bells and sirens for emergency situations.
The windows of the school buses should be fitted with horizontal grills and mesh wires; also the windows should not be fitted with curtains or glasses having films. The seats must be of non-combustible materials for children’s safety.
The doors should be fitted with reliable locks that can be locked. Emergency exit doors should also be installed in the buses.
To keep the school bags and water bottles safely, there should be enough space either under the seats or in a convenient place inside the bus.
There must be a well-trained female attendant and a bus conductor to attend to school children & ensure their safe boarding and overall safety during the entire journey. Also, they should ensure that under no circumstances should any outsider be allowed to board the school bus.
I also would like to point out to the need for traffic to stop while children are embarking and disembarking. There should be red flash lights on the back of the bus with a stop sign with flash lights sticking out of the left side of the bus.
No bus belonging to an educational institution should carry children in excess of its permitted seating capacity.
Besides the above points it is the prime responsibilities of the school authorities to ensure that every driver of a school bus must have a minimum of five years experience in driving heavy vehicles and must not have any previous record of traffic offences. In addition to the driver, there must be a qualified person in every school bus as provided in Rule 17 of the Motor Vehicles Rules. There should be an escort from the school, preferably a teacher, in the bus to ensure safety.
For the safety of our children, we have to be cautious because children are like buds in a garden and should be carefully and lovingly nurtured, as they are the future of the nation and the citizens of tomorrow.
Yours etc.,
Pinaki Nandy
Guwahati.
Plight of flat owners
Editor,
In a show of ‘might’ between the flat owners and the government in the much debated demolition of apartment complexes in Kochi, the authorities have started choking the residents of the four apartments in Kochi by cutting off their power and water connections early on Thursday. The residents are of the view that the action of denying basic things like water and electricity by the authorities are indeed a violation of human rights.
The residents remained adamant in their decision not to vacate their flats till they get justice. This is a piquant situation as far as this controversial case is concerned. The Supreme Court has ordered the apartment complexes to be demolished as it violated the CRZ rules but the flat owners have vowed they will not vacate their flats even if they embrace death.
But the problem being exposed here is the willingness of the residents to die, which is an extreme action towards getting justice. The paradoxical stand of the Supreme Court vis-a-vis the flat owners, who have decided to embrace death if the government goes ahead with the eviction process, is being looked down upon at this point of time.
The other dark side of the issue is that the apartment complexes that have been allowed to be built using tons of steel, bricks, cement, sand, endless, manpower, etc., which are the bounty of our mother earth are lost forever. Who loses ultimately? If these apartment complexes are allowed to stand, so many people can live there keeping the environment intact. By demolishing, the whole environments around the apartments are disturbed and imbalanced; more so the residents. So, keeping the apartment complexes untouched would be ideal and good for the environments considering all aspects.
As part of eviction of the flat owners, the government has resorted to the action of cutting off water and electricity connections, which is tantamount to smoking out people. People have the natural right to remain where they are residing, and denying them the basic facilities is like denying them justice. If the residents do not want to move out of their habitat, then ‘leave them there’ is the best option and the Court has to take these people’s genuine needs into consideration and do the needful to deliver them their delayed justice.
Yours etc.,
TK Nandanan,
Via email