Mumbai school bus owners to go on strike from Friday

Fed up with the ever-changing safety norms prescribed by the state government, school bus owners will go on an indefinite strike from Friday, March 9. The strike comes at a time when students and parents are grappling with the stress of the ongoing SSC and HSC board exams.

President of Maharashtra state goods and passengers transport association, Baba Shinde, said, “The government has time and again failed to pay attention to our demands. There are 23 norms in the school transport policy, but some are impractical to follow. We had written to chief minister Prithviraj Chavan regarding this, but he did not respond.”

Shinde also claimed that not a single meeting of the transport committee was held in any school in the last six months. According to Pune RTO, about 1,500 private buses are being operated in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad to ferry 20,000-25,000 school
children.
“The authorities keep changing the norms as per their whims and fancies. Whenever there is a meeting, new conditions are added to the existing norms,” wondered Anil Garg of the school bus owners’ association,
Maharashtra

“Originally, it had seven points. It increased to 11, then 14 and now 28. Why don’t they decide everything at one time and create a foolproof plan?” he asked.

He said the association is creating awareness about the strike by putting up posters and distributing pamphlets near educational institutes. Handbills in English and Marathi are being distributed among students and parents, asking them to be prepared for the strike during the examination period. Around 10,000 posters and 1 lakh handbills will be distributed by Tuesday evening.

“We have got 100% support for the strike from every corner of the state,” said Garg. He said officials from the association will visit different cities in the state and discuss issues of child safety and the state government’s changing norms with service providers.

“A proposal was approved by the transport commission’s technical committee after getting the consent of manufacturers, schools, parents and NGOs. It is waiting for clearance since it was submitted to Mantralaya on January 31, 2011. Why is it taking so long? Such delays are frustrating,” said Garg.