All buses will be checked before schools open, Govt tells HC

Nagpur: Maharashtra government on Thursday informed the high court here that it would complete fitness tests of all schoolbuses in state before reopening of schools. It stated that drive launched by the RTOs in this regard was going on in full swing across the state.
A division bench of justices Bhushan Gavai and Vinay Deshpande then adjourned the hearing till June 30, after the government sought time to complete exercise.
The court’s directives came while hearing a suo motu PIL on death of nine-year-old Virat Zade, a student of Central India Public School, on January 9, 2011. He was crushed under the schoolbus in Hudkeshwar while returning from school. He went under the bus to collect his tiffin box which had fallen while alighting from the vehicle.
Earlier, amicus curiae Firdos Mirza pointed out that all schools were yet to constitute transport committees as directed by the court. The government then informed that schools were told to take steps in this regard and they would likely complete formalities after reopening.
During last hearing, RTO informed that it would be checking the fitness of all 2635 school buses in Nagpur district, but the court told them to conduct the exercise in entire state. Taking suo motu cognizance of the media reports that highlighted glaring loopholes on the part of school management in running the bus service, the court had asked CBSE to explore possibility of derecognizing the school and file compliance report. The court had made as many as 125 schools respondents and told the Central India Public School to deposit Rs10,000 with the registry. The judges had then asked Maharashtra government to come up with concrete measures to reduce such tragic incidents.