After Haryana govt crackdown, private school bodies to come up with SOP

Nitish Sharma

Ambala, April 14

Private school bodies have called upon their members to adhere to government guidelines and plan to issue them standard operating procedure (SOP), following a crackdown against private school buses plying without permit and a fitness certificate.

The school operators said they were not against the move to check buses, but the situation had created panic and the issuance of challans would not resolve the matter.

Kulbhushan Sharma, president of the National Independent Schools Alliance (NISA), said: “The government has been issuing challans, but it is a short-term solution. The penalties being imposed on the schools will ultimately increase the financial burden on parents of students.”

“Though the Surakshit School Vahan Policy exists, we have decided to prepare an SOP and ask members to follow it to avoid any such incident in future. The schools will be asked to appoint dedicated transport managers and ensure that the buses are in an optimum condition and the drivers and conductors are fit for their jobs,” he said.

“We also request the government to ensure that buses of private schools are not sent for political rallies. As per rules, school buses can’t go beyond their routes, but still the schools are pressured and the buses return damaged. The government should also provide pothole-free and stray cattle-free roads to avoid accidents,” said Sharma.

Suresh Chander, president of the Haryana Progressive Schools’ Conference, said: “Such a reaction from the government was natural after such an unfortunate incident. We are not against the move, but the situation has triggered panic. The schools are also concerned about the safety of students. We have decided to run some programmes to motivate the drivers and conductors to ensure that they feel personally connected with the children so that they ply buses with extra care.”