‘Hefty transportation charges, but lax security on school buses’

GURGAON: The recent case of sexual assault of a four-year-old kindergarten student on a school bus has once again highlighted the lax security measures taken by school authorities in ensuring the safety of students during transit, despite the exorbitant transportation charges taken by all the well-known private schools in the city.
The transportation charges of most schools vary between Rs 2,000 and Rs 6,000 per month.Further, there is an average of 10-15% increase in the transportation charges every year.
“All the schools are charging as per their whims and fancy, and even after that the students do not get the services,” said Rajeev Chadda, a parent. Chadda actually had to stop school transportation service for his daughter as he found it unaffordable and he now sends her through private transportation, which charges him Rs 2,500 instead of 5,000 for the same distance per month.
In a similar case, Ranbir stopped the transportation services for both his sons “because of safety issue and other problems”. The bus would make the kids wait in heat, drop them on random points. I would rather have my sons come back in an auto.”
Some parents also the slabs used by the schools for charging the bus fees are totally illogical. For instance, a kid traveling 400 metres has to pay the same as the one travelling four kilometres.
“The schools are charging more and more every year, however their level of services hardly justify the amount being charges. They are asking us to pay money under different heads such as SOS charges, RFID charges and also insurance charges, whereas they cannot even comply with school bus safety rules,” said Ramphal, another parent.