In a recent directive, the Delhi government has asked all its schools to take steps to discourage the parents from sending their wards to school in private transports. The government claimed that most of these transport services are illegal and pose a threat to the safety of the children. The directive came into existence after the life of students were put in danger by a private transport due to non-adherence of the traffic rules.
"It is observed that for transportation of school children in Delhi primarily three modes of transport are being used-- vehicles owned by the educational institutions, vehicles hired by the educational institutions and vehicles hired by parents or guardians themselves," the Directorate of Education (DoE) said in a letter to schools.
It further said that the first two modes of the transportation are simple to monitor and generally follow the laws of the traffic under Delhi Motor
Vehicles Rules, 1993.
However, the DoE said, "A majority of private vehicles hired by parents themselves are observed to be operating illegally without taking adequate safeguards towards the safety of school children, thus jeopardizing the lives of young school children using this form of transport."
The directorate further observed that "most of these vehicles are overloaded and are piled dangerously and (are driven)recklessly at great speeds in utter disregard to traffic rules and regulations."
The schools have been asked to alert the parents about such recklessness of the private transports during the Parent Teacher Meetings (PTMs) and by using other interactive means.
"Parents must be asked to make use of safe transport provided by the schools and abstain from sending their children in illegal school vans/cabs which can prove dangerous or fatal owing to non-adherence of motor vehicles law," DoE said.