Vanishing act irks parents, drains kids

Massive traffic jams, disgruntled faces, irate parents and fatigued children were some common scenes in the city on Wednesday when private school van drivers went on a strike. Thousands of parents in the city are left scurrying about to find alternative modes of transport for their children to go to schools in the coming days.

The Karnataka United School and Light Motor Vehicle Drivers Union has threatened to continue the strike in the days to come, which means the miseries for the children, their parents and the city’s motorists have not ended.

The Karnataka High Court had directed the police to enforce safety norms among private school transport vehicle owners/drivers, which mandated a fitness certificate for vehicles over 15 years old, and adhering to the stipulated number of children per vehicle of different categories.

This has not gone down well with the Union, which is defending the continuance of old vehicles even as the drivers of these vehicles have been time and again found violating safety norms while ferrying children. The resulting indefinite strike called by the Union in protest against the alleged harassment by the police, who directed the private school transport drivers to abide by the fitness certificate and safety norms while ferrying children to and from schools, caught most parents unawares on Wednesday.

‘Help me, stranger’
When dna visited some schools in the city, children were found asking complete strangers for mobile phones to get in touch with their parents. Many of them had to depend on guidance and help from older students to reach home.

Some children flagged down autorickshaws on their own, promising the drivers that they would pay them on reaching home as they did not carry enough cash with them. Parents too had a tormenting day, making instant changes to their work schedules to accommodate taking their children to school and again to pick them up in the late afternoon.

Although Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation buses on contract with the schools were a blessing for those students subscribing for these services under the ‘Safe Route To School’ programme, in many schools, these buses too ended up being crowded with stranded children.