Guidelines for school vehicles in Jaipur: Things to know about your child’s safety

Jaipur: The Rajasthan State Legal Authority (RSLA) has issued guidelines for vehicles carrying school children in Jaipur. RSLA has asked the Rajasthan government, Director General of Police and senior officials of police and education department to ensure implementation of these guidelines. While these guidelines had been formed, RSLA wants the government to implement them strictly after a seven-year-old boy was murdered in Gurgaon’s Ryan International School.

While the onus of making sure that these guidelines should be followed is on the government authorities, parents should also keep a tab if the schools where their children study are following these guidelines or not. If their school is not following these guidelines, they should bring it to the notice of school authorities and the government:

Here are some of the guidelines, you should be aware of:

• The vehicle used for plying school children (van, bus, rickshaw or bus) should be painted in yellow colour. By painting these vehicles yellow, it will be easier to identify them as `Bal Vahini’ (vehicle to carry school kids).
• These vehicles should also have `On school duty’ written on them.
• Every vehicle should have a global positioning system (GPS) installed so that the location of the vehicle can be tracked in real time.
• Schools should provide all the identification details of the driver and the helper to the concerned police station. The police should verify the credentials of these individuals.
• Details of the school including the name, contact, should be written on the school vehicle.
• The name of bus driver and conductor should also be mentioned on the vehicle.
• The maximum speed limit for these vehicles is 40 km per hour.
• These vehicles should not have any kind of black film on windows.
• These vehicles should have proper lighting inside.
• If the driver of vehicle was charge-sheeted in drunk driving case he or she should be debarred from driving the vehicle meant to carry school children
• The contact number of the driver and bus conductor should be given to the nearby police station by the school authority.
• These vehicles should only ply if they have valid certificates and permits to be operated as vehicles to transport kids.
• Authorities concerned are also directed to have regular inspection of these vehicles.

RSLA executive chairman Justice KS Javeri has sent a copy of these guidelines to senior officials of police and education department for compliance.