Bhubaneswar, Nov 6: The government in eastern Indian Odisha state is considering enacting a policy on transportation of school children with a view to ensuring their safety.
Alarmed by rising number of accidents of transport vehicles of school children, the State government is mulling a policy to make ‘Bus’ as the mandatory mode of transportation of school children instead of auto rickshaws or other mini vehicles.
The policy prepared by the Transport Department has been sent to the State government for approval.
Notably, a school child died and nine others were seriously wounded in an accident involving an auto rickshaw and a bus in Dhenkanal district in September this year while nine school children were injured when an auto-rickshaw in which they were travelling, overturned near Pantha Nivas in Sector-V area in Rourkela on October 1.
The new policy, sources in State Government said, aims to make vehicles with a seating capacity of 40 eligible as school bus and approval of the local RTO will be made mandatory.
The vehicles will be equipped with necessary equipment and services for the safety of school children.
