Crammed school vans, autos and encroached footpaths; residents want authorities to act on all

It all began with a concerned tweet by city police commissioner Bhaskar Rao about how school vans are crammed to the roof with children even sitting above the gas cylinders. What followed was a chain reaction where over 3000 people began talking about this. The outburst led the residents to suggest that the cops punish the drivers without any fear or favour and veered the conversation to crammed autos, and businesses encroaching the footpaths.

The netizens replied that while the top cop must apply the rules consistently as it is dangerous and must be stopped, they also asked him to stop the menace of footpath encroachments by businesses. “It is also pushing thousands of pedestrians onto the roads, including kids and exposing them to danger,” tweeted Namma Bengaluroo, and added: “While we Bengalurueans wonder why are pedestrians walking on the roads? Why there are more accidents on our roads? Why is there traffic jams on the road? Why is vehicular traffic slowing down. The Bangalore city traffic police must please identify and fix the root cause. No area is spared. General lack of civic sense is killing our city.”

Alex Pandian tweeted a photo of a florist occupying a footpath near Naara Motors on 24th Main in JP Nagar 2nd phase. Tweeting the commissioner, he says: “The same is the case in the entire 24th main stretch, especially from Cafe Coffee Day to Marenahalli junction. The traffic police has not bothered to act.”

The residents contend that while crores of taxpayers’ money is being spent in laying footpaths in various areas, they are gobbled up to become parking lots or used by shop owners and street vendors to run full-fledged businesses. Whitefield residents give the example of the nice footpath on ITPL Main Road along the Metro line. “The vehicles coming to Bhagini hotel are always parked on the footpath. This is going on for long. Can you pass on strict instructions to the hotel?” tweets one resident. One more person points out the Trident Hyundai showroom occupying the footpath on Jakkasandra Main Road abutting one side of Agara Lake.

Ashok Agarwal, the National President of the All India Parents Association asked the top cop to prosecute such drivers fearlessly. Says he: “Why are you failing in your duties? We are with you.” Danish Manzoor, editorial director, Newsweek Group also echoed the feeling: “So glad you raised this issue. This has been bothering me a lot. In this case, I think children’s safety must come first. Will these parents (saving money) be okay if their children get hurt? Nope! The law should prevail.”

L Raja justfied that the reason is economical. “Running a regular bus / van with students as per the standard intake becomes expensive for parents,” he says. “So they go for private vans as a cheaper option. Is it possible to create a separate registration category for school vans with tax-free?” More than 30 people agreed with him on this and favourited it. Krishna Kumar felt that the parents should be equally responsible and pressure the school authorities to ensure this does not happen again. However, Jon Snow said that the cops should keep taking action on such errant drivers to discipline the school managements. Says he: “Once the police begin prosecuting such shams, school administrators will fall in line. Else normally the requests and complaints of parents fall on deaf ears.”

A few residents complained about crammed autorickshaws too. Said another resident: “An auto doesn’t even have doors to stop them from falling – How dangerous.  @blrcitytraffic should conduct checks on regular basis for a month at least.” Vijayan Rao was even more categorical by stating that parents should desist from sending their wards in such vans and autos.

One resident suggests that private van operators should be asked to use 12-18 seater vans and the school authorities should ensure this along with the parents and the traffic police. Kiran Nadiger felt that a counseling class for drivers and school management about children’s safety could help. One person went further and said that the top cop should just follow the law and tweet about it.

Mohit hit the nail on the head by summing up the situation in this manner: “The challenge is employment/income Vs safety. The enforcement has a leaning towards not to take away employment/income. Parents cant afford very expensive school vans. Only when mishaps occur, the entire system will show a knee jerk reaction for 10 days. Back to normalcy later.”