Bhubaneswar: City auto-rickshaws carrying schoolchildren continue to flout rules, leaving the kids in grave danger.
This is apparent from yet another accident in which three schoolchildren were injured after an auto-rickshaw overturned near Tankapani Road under Badagada police station recently.
Although the Transport department had decided to make buses the mandatory mode of transportation of schoolchildren keeping in mind the alarming number of road accidents, parents still prefer auto-rickshaws for their doorstep service.
St Joseph High School principal Sister Sylvia said, “We can’t control the children outside the school. We can ask the parents to take care of their wards. It is parents’ job to keep them safe.”
Another teacher of a city-based school said, “We are maintaining a record of all the auto-rickshaws that are bringing the children to school and how many children they are bringing. We have 15 buses but they only operate on a handful of routes within the city. So, not allowing small vehicles will also create some problems for us to send our kids to school.”
But despite all the problems, why do the parents still prefer autos for their children?
Smita Patnaik, a parent, said price factor and doorstep service are the reasons. Moreover, the public transport system is not in tune with schools, she said.
Many people complain about rash driving auto-rickshaw drivers. Sharing his experience, Piyush Ranjan Rout, an urban planner, said, “Once I was riding a bicycle on the left side of a flyover from Mausima Chhak towards Forest Park; suddenly an auto came hurtling towards me and grazed my right side handle while trying to overtake another auto-rickshaw coming from my left side, throwing me down.”
He said, “Earlier I approached the Police Commissionerate to disallow autos from carrying schoolchildren like broiler chicken. Police Commissionerate had promised they would ensure autos would not carry schoolchildren but they seem to have forgotten their responsibilities.”
Another resident Debo Patnaik said the number of autos in Bhubaneswar has been increasing by the day. “For livelihood, one can run an auto; but running it recklessly at the cost of fellow passersby is something beyond toleration. You give an inch of space, they would not mind to push in the vehicle menacingly. Most of them love to make an abrupt halt, giving little time to stop your vehicle, particularly two-wheeler. If you don’t act swiftly, you will end up in hospital. They speed away in the blink of an eye from the place of accident and you can’t even jot down the auto registration number if you want to file an FIR. Is not it prudent to make it mandatory for autos to have the registration numbers in larger fonts,” Patnaik mentioned.
Earlier, the state government had planned to curtail the movement of auto rickshaws on roads as Bhubaneswar is going to be a Smart City. The Transport department had also written a letter to Khurda Collector on a proposal to cap the number of auto-rickshaws and allow the vehicles to ply only on some dedicated routes.
What the policy says
As per the State Policy on Transport of Schoolchildren, 2016,
• Small vehicles are not allowed to carry schoolchildren; buses are the only means of transportation
• Safety features like hangers, safety grilles, speed governors, fire extinguishers and first aid boxes are a must if schoolchildren are carried on auto-rickshaws and other small vehicles (like Omni, Tata Magic and Bolero)
• Vehicles with a seating capacity of at least 13, excluding that of the driver and the conductor, will be considered a school vehicle
• Formation of Parent Teacher Association is mandatory which will meet once a month
Arindam Ganguly, OP
