Kolkata: Pool car owners want fee hike to make drivers toe the line

KOLKATA: A cop initiative to teach pool car owners and drivers to become responsible citizens ended up in the men in uniform being informed about some home truths by pool car owners, who openly admitted that very few drivers stick to safety, security and maintenance norms. The latter added that they would not be able to change the situation until they are allowed to raise the fees per student.
The Bidhannagar Commissionerate had invited some 300-odd pool car owners from Salt Lake, Baguiati, Lake Town, New Town and areas surrounding airport for a day-long sensitization programme in the backdrop of the death of a Class-II student, Rishav Singh from Howrah, following a week-long struggle at SSKM Hospital after a pool car with 15 students travelling at a speed of 90kmph fell in a ditch beside Delhi Road on February 14. Rishav and another boy were admitted to the hospital where Rishav died of multi-organ failure on Saturday.

However, at the sensitization programme, the pool car owners tried to defend themselves by saying that they carry excess number of students against the rulebook just to stay afloat in the competitive market.
The one-and-a-half-hour programme at a banquet hall off VIP Road was attended by senior officers of Bidhannagar Commissonerate along with the officer-in-charge of all traffic guards under the commissionerate. The officers first showed a power point presentation to the pool car owners, highlighting their laxities and the areas they need to work on and then they addressed the issues in details to the drivers and owners. However, right after the meeting, the drivers told TOI as well as to some officers in person that the guidelines are difficult to meet.
“The cops are asking us to leave our Maruti Omni cars and shift to a larger and safer vehicle. But we don’t earn enough to invest in another car now. Further, the cops have been constantly stressing on limiting the number of kids in the car. In order to do that, we need to increase the fees per kid, which the guardians will not agree to,” said Asish Ghosh, a pool car owner and driver.
Another pool car owner, Manoj Debroy, said: “The cops are asking us to depute experienced drivers are also saying that we cannot club students of multiple schools together. But if we don’t do that, we cannot make enough profit to sustain the business. Further, we will have to shell out more to hire an experienced driver.”
The cops, however, said they were following a two-pronged approach in which they would also conduct sensitization sessions at various schools and with guardians’ forums. “First, we are trying to sensitize and persuade the drivers and owners to stick to the norms set by the school education department and by us. The next step will be execution in which we will start prosecuting the owners and drivers who will not stick to guidelines,” said Dhritiman Sarkar, DC (traffic) of Bidhannagar Commissionerate.
Sarkar added the commissionerate’ also plans to paste cop helpline numbers on every pool car.
(With inputs from Mayukh Sengupta)