Women attendants must from July 1

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 19

In the wake of the molestation of a five-year-old student of Stepping Stones School, Sector 38, on a school bus, the UT Education Department has finally issued instructions to schools and transporters to ensure the safety of girl students travelling by school buses.

Besides the schools, now coaching centres, call centres and other institutions will have to deploy women attendants and install the GPS and CCTV cameras on their buses from July 1 without fail.

The decision was taken at a meeting, chaired by Sarvjit Singh, Finance Secretary, UT, to ensure the safety of girls travelling by buses of schools, coaching centres, call centres and other institutions.

The Finance Secretary said the women attendants should at least Class X pass, physically fit and should be carefully selected by the managements of schools, coaching centres and call centres. They must be paid the minimum wages by way of an account payee cheque or through direct account transfer. The women attendants should be in uniform and travel en route on all school buses till the last girl gets off at her destination.

All bus operators will have to verify the antecedents of the bus staff. The drivers and conductors must be employed only after a proper police verification. The buses must be equipped with the GPS facility and should keep a record of the routes followed, the speed graph and stoppage time of the past 30 days. CCTVs should be installed in buses to clearly videograph and record the entire inside view of the buses during travel. The system should have enough memory to record such video clips of the past 30 days.

The department has also fixed responsibility of the managements of schools, coaching centres and call centres, and transport companies and firms to ensure that girls are not sent on buses that do not comply with the instructions. The instructions will be enforced on buses carrying boys too. Parents of students have welcomed the move. They have advocated setting up of offices for the proper monitoring of buses equipped with the GPS and CCTVs.