Nagpur: The provision of school-bus has been defined vide Maharashtra Motor Vehicle Act 2011, Clause 2 (E). Accordingly, in Nagpur district there are 2900 schools of which only 920 schools have school-buses. It was informed to Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court in a PIL hearing the other day.
It was said during hearing that there are no school-bus committees in more than of half of schools. The High Court had directed the state government to provide information through an affidavit as to
how many activities/ meetings of how many school-bus committees are held. The state government in reply had furnished information that only two meetings of school-bus committees were held through out the year. Taking a serious note of it, the court further directed the state government to file another affidavit as to details of information about school-buses and committees thereof.
The court was also informed that the state government recognized autorickshaws in lieu of school-buses and their design was sent to Pune-based Automotive Research Association of India, but there was negative reply from the company. The court was displeased with such an answer. The court had taken the incident of death of Virath Zade caused by school-bus in front of hi house on January 9, 2012 and a matter of serious concern, and by itself treated the incident as PIL.
Adv Firdous Mirza has been appointed amicus curiae.
