GUWAHATI, April 1 � The Kamrup Metro administration has formed a Joint Inspection Team to implement the Supreme Court guidelines with regard to school buses, beginning from today.
The team is headed by Additional DC Rajib Prakash Barua and comprises Traffic DCP PJ Goswami, Secretary of Regional Transport Authority Kamal Das, DTO Gautam Das and other senior officials, said an official statement.
The team will conduct inspection of schools to ensure that the guidelines are adhered to by the school authorities.
The district administration had held two rounds of talks with authorities of private schools and CBSE-affiliated schools in recent months and announced that enforcement of the guidelines in the city will be carried out from April 1.
As per the new guidelines, there will be no restriction on parents bringing their kids to schools in private vehicles, but prohibition has been placed on use of rented vehicles, like Maruti van and Tata Sumo, to bring students to and from schools.
It has also been directed that all schools must have their own parking places and parking of vehicles on roads near schools have been prohibited.
Although parents can bring their kids to schools in private vehicles, they have been asked to refrain from parking their vehicles on the street in front of schools and creating traffic jams.
Besides, as per a notification issued by RTA Kamrup earlier this year, school buses have to be equipped with GPS devices for safety of students and for monitoring of their movement; drivers and conductors must have valid licences issued by competent authority; no vehicle having a seating capacity of more than 35 seats will be allowed to ply as school bus; drivers and conductors will not be able to consume intoxicating substances during duty hours; on duty bus drivers will have to wear khaki uniform with covered shoes, while conductors will have to wear navy blue colour uniform; registered owner of the vehicle must have own arrangement for housing, maintenance and repairing of vehicles, and vehicles can be used only to carry students of one particular school.
