ANANTAPUR: Even after the academic year began, the Road Transport Authorities (RTA) reportedly failed to clamp down on the school buses without proper documentation and safety measures.
Though a special drive was taken up across the state before the commencement of the academic year, the authorities in Anantapur district have seized only 23 school buses and 6 of them without updating fitness. But, more than 150 school buses without fitness certificates were reportedly ferrying students to schools and colleges in the district.
Official reports revealed that a total of 730 buses of various schools and colleges were being operated in the district. So far, 574 buses obtained fitness certificates from RTA. Normally, the school and college buses have to get clearance from the RTA department in May to continue services for the educational institutions. But, about 150 school buses have not obtained fitness certificates so far and many of them were already on the roads to transport students.
The RTA teams were conducting special drives for the last one week and registered cases on 23 buses for violating norms including lack of driving license for drivers and absence of safety measures. Six of them had no fitness but are ferrying the students. Sources said several buses were still being operated in violation of norms due to the laxity of RTA authorities. Several buses with an outdated age of more than 15 years were also being operated by the management of schools.
However, Anantapur DTC Veera Raju said the RTA teams were verifying the documents of school and college buses in the district through a special drive.
