60% school buses flout RTA norms
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Sixty per cent of the school buses plying on city roads are flouting the Road Transport Authority norms.
Although the most common violations are the dri-vers not possessing driving licences and absence of fitness certificates, most do not have adequate safety measures in place specified as per the Supreme Court guidelines. Most of the buses plying without fitness certificates were from the Ranga Reddy district.
While there are a total of 1,620 buses plying in the twin cities, most of the buses, when inspected for the 36 norms formulated by the SC, were found flouting more than one norm.
In a special drive against school buses launched about a fortnight ago, the RTA officials found that 270 buses out of the 500 school buses inspected so far were violating the norms. Cases were booked against 55 buses for various violations. Another 200 buses, which were found to have minor defects, have been served notices.
School buses are required to have telephone numbers of the school painted on the sides, fire extinguishers, grills on sides, a first aid box and a driver with minimum five years of driving experience. The buses should be painted yellow in colour.
“A few buses were also found to be plying without fitness certificates. Most of the cases are related to the lack of necessary documents. Some were found to have minor defects like broken mirror, not having fire extinguishers, having no lights or having broken railings. Most of the buses plying without fitness certificates were found to be from the Ranga Reddy district,” said joint transport commissioner G. Panduranga Rao.
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