India Today: New Delhi: Sunday, September 10, 2017.
RTI documents
show that the Gurugram Regional Transport Authority has no record of whether
buses of private schools were inspected for their fitness to ply, or if
credentials of drivers and conductors were verified.
The Ryan
International tragedy in Gurugram was completely avoidable and the
seven-year-old boy would still be alive had the school and the local
administration followed norms and guidelines issued by the police department as
well as the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
RTI
documents, filed by activist Harinder Dhingra and accessed exclusively by Mail
Today, show that the Gurugram Regional Transport Authority (RTA) has no record
of whether buses of private schools, often owned by influential people, were
inspected for their fitness to ply, or if credentials of the drivers and
conductors were verified.
The Class 2
student was found with his throat slit in a school toilet on Friday after being
allegedly murdered by a bus conductor who also tried to sexually assault the
boy. "It is intimated that the daily school buses inspection form is to be
filled by the transport in-charge of the respective schools. These forms are to
be compiled in the school itself. There is no such record available with the
office," the reply said in response to a query regarding the state of
compliance of school buses as per 'Surakshit School Vahan Policy', which was
formed based on directions from the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 2013.
The unconcern
of the transport authority is further underscored by the fact that on the last
hearing on July 27 of the RTI plea, which is on with the state information
commission (SIC) in Chandigarh, no one from the department appeared in front of
the commission and that too without notifying the body.
"The
Commission has adjourned the above said case for hearing to 20.09.2017 at
11.00am as neither the respondents have put in appearance nor filed any written
replies," the SIC order of July 27 said.
However, the
additional deputy commissioner and regional transport officer of Gurugram,
Pradeep Dahiya, refused to comment on the RTI reply and the policy's
implementation, saying the district administration had held a detailed press
conference over the issue and he had nothing more to add.
Apart from
other provisions which make for the body of this policy, one of the conditions
under the heading 'Compliance of other functions of School Authority' reads:
"Ensure proper verification of Drivers and Conductors/Attendants from
police department which are appointed, if it was not done earlier."
While it has
been revealed that the school did not verify the accused's credentials, it also
tried to cover its tracks by collecting the Aadhaar card of the conductor on
Friday from his house.
A set of
regulations issued by the local police department regarding safety of kids is
also pertinent to the scene of the crime: the toilet which the boy decided to
visit and where the accused slashed his throat with a knife. How was the conductor
allowed to enter the same washroom that was also visited by schoolchildren when
cops had banned such practice?
"Specifically
for bus drivers and conductors, whether employed by the school of contracted
out, access area must be limited to just the bus area, and specific
instructions must be given to them on which areas are out of bound for them. It
is therefore suggested that a toilet is provided in this area of clearly
specified with visible though secluded access, to prevent need for such persons
to enter the actual school premises," says regulation 2.2.4 of the
'Guidelines for Safety of Children in Schools' of the Gurugram police.
Another
section of the guidelines, 2.2.3, says: "Access to areas like bus area,
gym, swimming pool, sports rooms/fields, canteens, toilets should be confined
to persons whose presence in the area is required, and are therefore
specifically authorised access to these areas; loitering in such specific areas
by unauthorised personnel should be prevented to reduce chances of problems
arising (eg. Bus driver seen near children's toilets, or canteen boy seen near
sports field). Accordingly, admin/security department must draw up a list of
such restricted areas and names of persons permitted entry, and these must be
displayed on a notice board on the premises."
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