City school van operators go on flash strike

Surat: Hundreds of students struggled to reach schools as van operators went on a flash strike Wednesday in some parts of the city. This led to chaos outside schools as hundreds of parents rushed to to drop or pick-up their wards.
The van operators were protesting the drive initiated by the Regional Transport Office (RTO) and city traffic police against overloading in school vans since Monday.
With beginning of the academic year the RTO and traffic cops started the drive to enforce traffic rules. On Tuesday a group of van operators made representation to the senior traffic cops with demand to stop the drive.
The cops had received several complaints against van drivers ferrying more than double the number of students permissible by law. Since Monday police have seized 442 school vans and imposed fine on them.
“The drive is aimed at enforcing traffic rules, specifically related to ferrying students in vans. Those vans carrying students more than its permissible limit were seized from the schools after it dropped students so that it does not affect the students,” said Sudhir Desai, deputy commissioner of police.
Police later informed the school management about seizure of specific vans and the schools authorities were asked to inform parents of the children.
Police also seized vans running on CNG fuel without mandatory registration with the RTO. A police officials said, “The van running on CNG should get a fitness certificate from RTO and if these gas kits are not maintained properly it may lead to major accident.”
As a mark of protest many van operators did not pick up students on Wednesday and the parents had to go to school to drop their children or to pick them up. This led to chaos outside schools in many parts of the city.