Srimanta Sankar Academy is playing with lives of students: DTO Himanshu Das

Staff Reporter

Guwahati: Kamrup (M) DTO Himanshu Das has raised concerns regarding the safety of students and mentioned that the CBSE guidelines and Supreme Court directives have been violated by Srimanta Sankar Academy as the transport department detected the irregularity at the educational institution.

The Transport Department checked several school buses of the educational institution and detected irregularities. "We have been warning the school buses at various times that they should follow the CBSE guidelines. I also conducted awareness programmes in this regard from time to time. However, some schools have been violating these rules. There are guidelines about what the school bus must look like and what facilities it must have. In addition, it is essential to have a lady attendant on the school bus. This is because there may be various inconveniences for students while the bus is running. School buses should also comply with the Supreme Court's directive. School buses should be operated in compliance with the Children Protection Act. However, some school buses do not have lady attendants. CCTV cameras are installed, but the school does not monitor them," said DTO Enforcement Officer Himanshu Das, who led the operation.

"Nowadays, children have to carry large packages of books to school. The CBSE guidelines strictly require school buses to have shelves under the seats for storing students' books. But many school buses don't have that. "We check the buses at pick-up and drop-off times," he said. Children are the future of the country. Today's children are tomorrow's assets. It is our responsibility to protect children. We, as government departments, need to check whether these laws and regulations are being followed," added Himanshu Das.

Informing that three school buses of the school have been seized by the authorities, he said, "We have conducted several awareness programmes at Srimanta Sankar Academy before taking strong action in this regard. In the meetings, we have also raised concerns about lady attendants. I have done awareness programmes about drivers and conductors. I warned them to obey all the rules and regulations. They then apologised to us for violating the rules. However, after the elections, they recently started operating school buses again, violating the rules. And when we resumed the operation in the first two days, we seized three buses from Srimanta Sankar Academy, out of which we released one," he said.

The job of a lady in attendance is to act as a guide to the students, during pick-up and drop-off, she stays with the students to help them. It was a shame that school buses had to be sent in this way due to permit suspension. A total of 16 school buses were inspected by the transport department today. 10 of these school buses belong to Srimanta Sankar Academy. Action will be taken against these school buses for a lack of adequate facilities and a violation of permits. Necessary action would be taken against the Srimanta Sankar Academy in stages. I urge all schools to write the rules and guidelines of the Supreme Court on large boards so that the parents of the students are aware of the rules," he said, reiterating his warning to all school authorities not to violate the rules.

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