Nagpur: In a move that has once again exposed the shocking negligence and hollow enforcement within Maharashtra’s transport machinery, the State Government has finally suspended Nagpur City Regional Transport Officer (RTO) Kiran Bidkar, nearly eight months after a deadly school transport accident in Mankapur claimed the lives of a schoolgirl and a driver.
The suspension order, issued on Thursday, bluntly holds Bidkar responsible for “serious negligence, dereliction of duty and administrative failure,” raising uncomfortable questions about how unsafe school vehicles continue to operate freely despite repeated tragedies and government promises of strict action.
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The fatal accident occurred on September 12, 2025, when a school van and a school bus met with a catastrophic mishap in Mankapur. Investigations later revealed a chilling fact, the school van involved in the tragedy was allegedly operating without a valid fitness certificate. In simple terms, an unfit and unauthorised vehicle was carrying children on city roads while the very department responsible for monitoring such vehicles looked the other way.
The government order clearly states that Bidkar, who was heading the Nagpur City RTO office at the time, failed to discharge his official responsibilities and violated provisions of the Maharashtra Civil Services Conduct Rules. Disciplinary proceedings under the Maharashtra Civil Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1979, have now been initiated against him.
However, the suspension has triggered criticism over the delay in action. Activists and citizens argue that accountability should have been fixed immediately after the accident instead of months later, after public outrage and political pressure mounted.
“This is not merely one officer’s failure. This is the collapse of an entire enforcement system,” said a road safety activist. “Children died because an unfit vehicle was allowed to run openly on the roads. The tragedy was preventable.”
Sources within the transport department privately admitted that the action is intended to send a strong message across the system, where inspections, compliance checks and monitoring of school vehicles are often reduced to paperwork exercises rather than genuine safety enforcement.
Despite multiple crackdowns announced after previous accidents across Maharashtra, dangerous school vans, overloaded autos and unfit transport vehicles continue to ferry thousands of students every day with little fear of action. Parents repeatedly complain that many vehicles lack permits, fitness certificates, trained drivers and even basic safety measures.
The suspension order states that Bidkar will remain attached to the office of the Transport Commissioner in Mumbai during the suspension period and cannot leave headquarters without prior permission. Though he will receive subsistence allowance as per rules, the government has barred him from accepting private employment or engaging in business activities during this period.
The issue had already rocked the Winter Session of the State Legislature held in Nagpur last December, where the government had announced that action against Bidkar would follow.
The latest development has once again laid bare the grim reality of school transport regulation in the state, where rules exist in abundance on paper, but enforcement awakens only after innocent lives are lost.
