Protest to be staged on November 19 against provisions of government order
Buses operated by private schools in the State will go
off the road on November 19 in protest against the implementation of
G.O. No. 727 issued on September 30 by the government, said R.
Chandrasekaran, President, Coordination Committee of the Tamil Nadu
Private Schools Association here on Friday.
Secretaries D.C. Elangovan, K.R. Nandakumar and other office-bearers were present on the occasion.
The
office bearers of the Coordination Committee said that the
Association’s suggestions about the safety parameters to be adopted by
the school buses were offered for consideration.
Even
after receiving the suggestions from them, the government had decided
to go ahead with the draft rules submitted to the High Court and had
issued a government order.
The Association urged the
government to reconsider and redraft the rules so that they are
practically feasible for day-to-day operations of the schools.
Private
schools are taking many precautions with regard to the safety of
children. Despite this, isolated accidents were taking place due to
human error.
The demands of the association are:
Rule
No. 5 (1) is impractical, i.e. related to appointing as bus assistants
only those with conductor licence;
Rule No. 6 (5) mandating the school
buses to lower the footboard to 250 mm to 300 mm from the ground is
impractical, as it will pave way for damaging the footboard on speed
breakers and the bad road conditions in rural areas, as it will force
the managements to indulge in repairing the buses on day-to-day basis;
Rule No. 6 (8) regarding bag racks;
Rule No. 6 (12) stipulating the size
of the emergency exit on the right side rear portion will weaken the
strength of the bus;
Rule 6 (16) insisting on fixing of speed governors
will affect the life of the engine; Rule 8 for inspecting the vehicles
by a five-member committee headed by the Regional Deputy Commissioner of
Transport department is not feasible, due to this, over thousand buses
could not be operated by the schools, resulting in inconvenience to
students and parents, the office-bearers said further.
The
Coordination Committee also appealed to the government to fix the
minimum fees for the school students at Rs. 18,000 per year.
Delegation
They
also said that a delegation of the Coordination Committee has planned
to meet the Secretaries of the government and also the Transport
Minister to press their plea.
Earlier, the
Coordination Committee’s Krishnagiri District Unit’s meeting was held at
Don Bosco Matriculation Higher Secondary School in Krishnagiri.
