Chennai:
Students across Tamil Nadu are set to have a harrowing day with school buses staying off the roads today.
School managements are not plying the buses to protest against the stricter norms introduced by the state government for vehicles transporting school children. The state has around 10,500 private schools.
The new regulations were laid down following the death of a six-year-old student, Shruti, after she fell through a hole in the floor of her bus on July 25.
The new guidelines say drivers should have a minimum experience of five years and attendants must have a conductor's licence. The buses should not cross the speed limit of 40 km/hour within the city and be inspected every three months.
The government has put special emphasis on safety. It said damaged floors in buses, if any, must be replaced and not repaired. All buses should have emergency exits. Drivers fined for over-speeding or drunken driving should not be hired and the buses should not be overloaded.
But the schools argue that it is neither possible to put emergency exits in the existing buses nor can they afford qualified conductors. The managements say quarterly bus inspections will encourage harassment and corruption.