Kurukshetra schools take to ancient transport: Bull carts replace vans

| Last updated less than one minute ago

Submit :

News Photos Just In Debate Topic Latest News Articles Local News Blog Posts Pictures Reviews Recipes

cs kanwar

19 January, 2012

School vans have been replaced by horse and bull-carts in Kurukshetra to ferry school children. Pertinent to mention here is that the school vans have opted to stay off the roads after the district administration imposed stringent rules to make sure that the schoolchildren are safely transported.

NOW HORSE-carts (ghora-rheda) and bull-carts (Jhota-buggi) are ferrying school children between their localities and schools, in place of private small vans, which have been put off the road by van-operators, after stringent rules were imposed by the district administration.

Punjab and Haryana High Court, Chandigarh issued directives to the both the governments to ensure safety and security of school children while travelling to school campuses, after a fatal accident of a school van near Saha in Ambala district, in which 12 school children lost their lives.

For the last two days horse-carts are being used to ferry school children to schools in many parts of the district as the contractual van operators refused to continue their jobs, as these small vehicles neither have speed governors nor the capacity to accommodate large number of students.

Even the school-owned vans are reluctant to employ conductors to look after the boarding and de-boarding of kids which has been made mandatory now. The best option left for the students is quite innovative - the horse carts, which need no driving license, conductors, permission to operate on roads in neither rural or urban areas nor any affiliation with any school. These carts, which are usually used in rural sector to ferry agricultural products to Mandis and consumable and other goods in urban areas, are now the scenes in the cities and towns in the mornings, with a large number of kids sitting or squatting on these carts.

In rural belts of Pehowa and Ismailabad, the make-shift-passenger-cum-goods auto-carts, popularly known as Jugaads are also doing this odd job, replacing the small vans. Such carts have no light reflectors at the back or in front side to be visible to other vehicles during the fog period in the morning or evening, risking the lives of the kids.

A school principal, when contacted, said that the school has not engaged any such mode of transport. It is for the parents of the kids who perhaps have opted for it as school vans are not available presently. The district Education Officer, however, said he had no knowledge of any such mode of transport nor any complaint has been received in the office.

Meanwhile a meeting of school managements of the district convened by the Kurukshetra SP Ms Parul Kush Jain did not prove fruitful as she could not answer the queries of the principals. She said only the senior district officer was authorised to answer their queries. The Deputy Commissioner Mr Mandeep Singh Brar and regional transport officer were conspicuous by their absence in the meeting held in the police-lines here last evening.