30% school, college buses yet to get Fitness Certificates

Nellore: Failing to take stringent action against the errant school managements, every year issuing Fitness Certificates (FCs) to the private school buses has been turning out to be a herculean job for the Transport department. Even though, deadline for obtaining the mandatory FC is May 15, the process continues till end of July/August due to slipshod attitude of the Transport authorities which sometimes lead to mishaps due to unfit buses.

Consequently, educational institutions are not considering warnings of the Transport department even though shortages lead to possible disasters. About 30 per cent of buses and vans of private educational institutions have still to get Fitness Certificates (FCs) from the Transport department.

Out of 1,455 vehicles in the district, still 350-400 have to obtain FCs. “Every year, officials routinely warn the managements for obtaining the FCs and they start process only after reopening the schools. Intention of managements is to reduce number of services based on the students’ strength.

So, they wait till last minute and apply for the FC which is creating lot of fuss. There will be change in the system when officials sincerely crack whip on the errant managements,” said correspondent of an aided school.  

Even though, all managements are running the old and sometimes unfit vehicles for transporting the kids there has been no sincere efforts to curb such practices. Some engineering and private colleges are running services for 150-200 km for shifting students from nearby mandals and revenue divisional headquarters travelling even on the national highway without valid permission.

“Why the state government is encouraging such unsafe travel every year for some months? An application should be developed for knowing status of vehicle of each educational institution and can take action much before commencement of the academic year. At least, parents are also not knowing risk from such institutions technically,” said a young engineering graduate, who works as a faculty member in a private college.

Senior officials of the Transport department warn that they would recommend to the government to cancel permission to schools if they fail to obtain fitness certificates to the vehicles. There were no such instances of cancellations till now giving scope for adopting wait and see strategy.

An expert in the educational field said there should be a rule that without obtaining FC from the transport authority, educational officials should not permit them to start sessions. Lack of coordination among key departments, the erratic system has been continuing for many years.

Managements continue using vehicles without FC till they get severe warning from the Transport department. Each bus or vehicle that carries children shall have speed governor and GPS system for locating their movement and they shall have to be given FCs. But, this is not being maintained strictly.