Permits? 431 school vehicles found plying without them.

Pune Newsline:Monday, January 02, 2012.

In the first eight months since the Maharashtra Motor Vehicles (School Bus Regulation) Act 2011 was implemented, the Regional Transport Office (RTO), Pune, has collected over Rs 9 lakh in fines, revealed a Right To Information (RTI) query by The Indian Express.

Between March and October last year, 431 of the 1,663 school transportation vehicles (buses, minibuses and autorickshaws) in the city were found to be running without the mandatory contract carriage permit. A fine of Rs 2,000 is imposed on the owner of such vehicle, thus leading to Rs 8,62,000 being collected by the RTO within this period.

Another 307 drivers of school vehicles were found to be driving without their badges, as per the computerised records available at the RTO. With a fine of Rs 200 for each offence, Rs 61,400 was collected over the eight-month period.

Arun Yeola, regional transport officer, Pune, said, “Once we find a person operating a vehicle without a permit, we immediately suspend the licence of the vehicle owner for a minimum of seven days and maximum of 30 days. They are not allowed to run the vehicle till the permit is renewed. Also, along with the fine, the tax difference also has to be paid. For instance, if one has a vehicle registered for personal use and later they start using it commercially, the tax jump for the entire period has to be paid.”

He said for school vehicles, the Maharashtra Motor Vehicles (School Bus Regulation) Act 2011 has provisions for a 90 per cent tax exemption, leading to a tax of Rs 100 per seat annually. So here, the difference in the amount is not much. “However, for public service vehicles the tax is Rs 1,900 per year and for luxury buses it goes up to Rs 5,000. It hits the bus operators hard when they’re caught without permits. It hardly takes eight days to get a permit renewed, but people do not care,” said Yeola.

Asked about the number of smaller vans and autorickshaws ferrying school kids, RTO officials replied “nil” to the RTI query. They said that they “do not keep separate records for school vehicles”, though it has been 10 months since the school bus regulation came into place, followed by a government resolution issued by the state school education department on November 24.

Sushant Jagtap, a school bus operator, said the regulations have no separate provisions and penalties for autorickshaws, allowing them to get away with violations. “We can keep going on strikes, with our pleas falling on deaf ears and we paying heavy fines. But autorickshaw owners walk away despite jeopardising the safety of school kids, ranging from overloading, rash driving, having no safety rods and attendants. Despite these, the police are overlooking the fact that in cities like Pune, autorickshaws are the most widely used school transport vehicles,” he said.