While the safety of school going children is of paramount importance, it has been found that the school vans, cabs and buses are frequently violating the traffic norms in Dwarka.
One need not work hard to spot the lackadaisical approach of the school transports. It can be frequently spotted at major chowks and stretches in the area.
The traffic violations by school transports can be seen at AKM Chowk, ISKON Temple area, Ashirvad Chowk, the chowk of Sector 13/14 and Sector 4/12 and the chowk at Sector 6/10 etc.
The major violations include red light jumps, high speed and wrong side driving.
People have become more skeptical after the school bus accident at Noida on Saturday.
Couple of months back, a resident of Sector 13, Suman Thakur had shot a video of a school van driving on the wrong side of the road. It was seen in the video that the van narrowly escaped the head on collision with a car.
In August, a resident of Sector 12, Rakesh Singh had witnessed a van hitting the divider of the road. However, fortunately, none of the children in van was injured.
He said, “Such incidents are a proof that the drivers are careless and they are violating the rules. I have seen school vans and buses jumping the red light many times.”
The school vans and buses are also in poor conditions. The vans are also overloaded most of the times. Its drivers are mostly untrained. At times, the vans are also driven by minors. Few parents have also spotted minors driving the car.
A parent, Prakhar Pandey shared, “I caught a minor driver on driving seat in a cab at Sector 9. I talked to the owner of the can regarding this. He was very casual about this. He said that the boy is learning driving. Now, imagine how dangerous this can turn out to be. This must be checked and stern action should be taken by the administration.”
There are more than hundred schools in Dwarka. In almost all the schools, private vans and cabs are picking and dropping the children. The kids are vulnerable when there is any fault in the vans. Kids can be seen standing on the road while driver changes the punctured tyres. The kids can also be seen pushing vans.
President of Delhi Parents Association and a resident of Dwarka, Aprajita Gautam has been following up the subject with the administration. She has written several letters to the concerned departments to take actions.
She said, “Near Sector 9 Police Station, there are two schools - ITL Public School and RD Rajpal School. It is surprising that the school vans are not prosecuted by the police for repeated offences. In a private van, 16 to 18 kids are adjusted. Some of them are adjusted on the seat over the CNG cylinders. Similar situation is seen near St Gregarious School in Sector 11. This is a serious issue.”
Aprajita has also flashed the subject on social media but no action has been taken so far.
On the subject, traffic Inspector of Dwarka, Rajender Singh said, “We do prosecute the violators. We will take actions against minor drivers and also the drivers without licence. Such vans will be seized. As far as other violations are concerned, we will catch them and prosecute accordingly.”
