Parents Meet DC After 15,858 Sign School-Bus Petition

GURUGRAM: A group of parents met Deputy Commissioner Uttam Singh on Thursday over monsoon safety for schoolchildren, a day after a Change.org petition started by parent Pratibha Rao crossed 15,858 verified signatures, including 2,456 collected on Thursday alone.

The petition followed 24 August, when buses sat in waterlogged roads for hours and children reached home hungry and frightened. In one case already on the district's books, a Class II student who left school in Sector 47 at 12.30 pm reached Sector 51 only at 8.30 pm. The petition asks for faster coordination among the administration, schools, transport operators and parents; drainage repairs on major school routes; accountability for lapses; emergency-response training for drivers; and buses with emergency phones, drinking water and basic first aid.

Ruchika, one of the parents behind the petition, said 24 August was predictable after a similar crisis on 8 July. "The Aug 24 situation was preventable and predictable. The July 8 crisis should have led to the necessary SOPs and contingency arrangements being put in place. The new SOP is welcome, but parents would also like to know what was already supposed to be in place, who was responsible for ensuring compliance and why those measures were not enough," she said.

The District Disaster Management Authority, chaired by the Deputy Commissioner, had issued directions on Tuesday to traffic police, education officers, schools, GMDA, MCG, Haryana Roadways and other agencies. Traffic police are to classify school-bus routes as clear, slow-moving or unsafe at 5.30 am, 10.30 am and 12.30 pm on rain or IMD-alert days, with flash updates within 30 minutes if a route becomes impassable. The District Education Officer and District Elementary Education Officer must push every report to all government, private, aided and recognised schools within 15 minutes. Schools must not send buses into waterlogged stretches, must use alternates where they exist, and must keep children on campus under staff if no safe route is open. Every bus needs a staff escort. No child is to be dropped at an unattended or waterlogged stop. Spare buses are to stand by for rescue, and school routes get priority for dewatering. The order runs till 30 September.

Parents at Thursday's meeting called those steps useful and incomplete. They want to know how the 2014 Surakshit School Vahan Policy is checked each day, and what follows when gaps are found. Ruchika said July inspections had already flagged GPS and emergency-exit problems, and that a city with known flooding needed a written plan for stranded buses before the next spell, not after it. The group also plans to meet Municipal Corporation Commissioner Pradeep Dahiya, whose brief overlaps drainage, dewatering and child-safety coordination with the DC's office.

The petition is not a court filing. It is a numbered list of signatures and a Thursday appointment. What it puts on record is the gap between a 2014 vehicle-safety policy, a 8 July scare, a 26 August SOP, and a 24 August afternoon in which a seven-year-old spent eight hours getting home. The DC now has that list on his table. The SOP is already on paper. The next rain will test which of the two the buses actually follow.