Recently, Suman Thakur, a resident of Sector 13, Dwarka took a video of how these vans put the life of children at risk.
Private school vans are the only answers for areas where school buses don’t ply — and they are way cheaper. But they pose a life risk — willingly jumping red lights, driving on the wrong side, taking on more children than what’s permissible.
They pose a clear risk, but parents and the administration have decided to look away.
Recently, Suman Thakur, a resident of Sector 13, Dwarka — who was standing in front of ISKON temple — took a video of what we are talking about. He shared that video with City Spidey.
I was informed by one of my friends that school vans coming from Pragati Public School take the wrong side to go towards Sector 4. So, I decided to make a video of what happens. It shows a van miraculously escaping a head-on collision with a car, which was driving on the right side. The incident happened right in front of the temple," he said.
President of both Dwarka Parents’Association and Delhi Parents' Association, Aprajita Gautam, said, “I have made several complaints against such violations to the police and the concerned agencies. But these vans have no fear. Even the drivers in the vans are not trained and sometimes they are minors! Think about the risk they pose to the lives of the children.”
Dwarka have more than 100 schools, and private vans ply to almost all schools.
Sometimes, these children are seen standing on the road when the driver changes the tyres and sometimes they are seen pushing the vans, claimed another resident, who didn’t want to be named.
The traffic police is aware of the problem and has been conducting drives to raise awareness.
Traffic inspector Dwarka, Rajender Singh, said, “We are carrying drives against these school vans. Just yesterday, we prosecuted 30 vans.”
