Guntur school buses without fitness certificates will not be permitted to transport children

GUNTUR: The transport department is conducting inspection of 2,100 school buses in Guntur district to ensure their fitness before reopening of schools on June 12. After announcing the dates for inspecting the school buses, authorities have launched the drive to ensure that the buses have requisite fitness certificates before ferrying children to schools.

The checking of fitness of the buses intensified after several accidents and instances of violation of rules came to light. It was found that several school buses were being used for private functions despite officials issuing notices to managements asking them to stop the practice.

One such Repalle-bound school bus coming from a private function at Bapatla met with an accident near Nagaram due to brake failure on April 26, killing one person and injuring nine others. This prompted the parents to question the conditions of the school buses that ferry their children to schools every day.

They are demanding that government conducts frequent checking of the condition of the buses to avoid untoward incidents. Officials have conducted checking of school buses and booked 202 cases against violators over the past six months.

Parents R Sai Krishna and M Subba Rao of Ashok Nagar in Guntur City alleged that the school managements were still not taking stern measures to ensure safety of the students. They said that the students have to go to schools standing in over-crowded buses which is violation of norms.

“Majority of the students of Classes 1 to 10 have to go to schools in buses. But poor maintenance is a matter of concern. We urge the government to ensure good condition of buses and employ qualified drivers to prevent any untoward incident,” they said. Deputy transport commissioner G C Rajaratnam said that after the checks, poorly-maintained buses will be barred from ferrying the school children.

“We are continuously checking the school buses and conducting special drives to ensure safety of the students. The drive to issue fitness certificates started from June 7 and will continue till the last bus,” he said.

“Some 1800 school buses have already been checked and issued with fitness certificates and inspection of the remaining buses is expected to be completed soon,” the DTC added.