Kanpur: District Magistrate Jitendra Pratap Singh on Tuesday, in a review meeting of the road security committee and district school transport security committee, directed the assistant road transport officer that a transport safety committee should be formed in schools. The committee is to include the school principal, two parents, two bus operators and officers from the transport department and police. This committee is required in all the schools of the district and is to be formed through Google sheet, allowing all officers to join easily. Formation of the committee should be ensured within a week in the district and reviewed by the transport department.District magistrate instructed the ARTO that all school vehicles in the district should be inspected through a safety campaign. The transport department should check essential points such as the first aid box in the vehicle, CCTV camera, vehicle fitness, driver’s dress, GPS device, passenger capacity and other safety measures. Heavy fines should be imposed on vehicles violating the rules. In an additional direction to the ARTO, Singh said that in upcoming meetings, five schools and five bus drivers should be honoured for following the rules of the transport department. MLA Ghatampur Saroj Kuril, in the meeting, said that it should be ensured that unfit school vehicles removed from urban areas are not allowed to operate in rural schools under any circumstances. Action should be taken after investigating this.District magistrate further stated that if drivers of school vehicles and other commercial vehicles have been issued ten challans in a row, their permits should be cancelled, and action should be taken against such drivers. Singh also directed that the transport department must ensure that buses registered in the name of educational institutions and school vehicles operating exclusively in any school or college should be of yellow colour only. For vehicles registered in the name of teaching institutions, the name of the school must be written on the front and back, and this must be ensured. It was also directed that a number should be mandatorily displayed on school vehicles to allow complaints about errant drivers. The transport department was instructed to conduct surprise inspections.
