Mangaluru: In the backdrop of the Trasi accident schools have decided to sensitise drivers who ferry children to school. Most schools have organized meetings with parents/vehicle drivers to discuss and brief them on the rules and regulations and safety of the children.

"As a precautionary measure we are having a meeting with all drivers who ferry school children to our campus. At the meeting, the school administration as well jurisdictional police officer will brief them on various safety aspects they have to follow while transporting children," said Sr Melissa, principal of Mount Carmel Central School, Maryhill. Saturday's meeting is expected to see 75 to 100 autorickshaw and cab drivers attend the meet. Melissa added that the school will maintain an inventory of all its vehicles and driver details for future reference.

"We have details of how each student comes to the campus. We also monitor commercial/private/two-wheelers. We warn them in case of overloading or if traffic rules are violated," said Rev Fr Robert D'Souza, principal, Lourdes Central School in Bejai. The school too has organized a Parents Teachers Association meeting on Saturday to discuss the safety of transport.

"We have been encouraging parents to drop their children to school," he added.

Cab/auto drivers resent guidelines

Members of Car Owner and Drivers Association, who met on Thursday expressed displeasure at the guidelines imposed by the district administration for ferrying school children in commercial vehicles.

Vehicle operators voice out that that as per district administration guidelines it has stressed that only eight children can be ferried in cabs to school.

"We have to demand more money from parents if we have to limit the numbers and we want it to be increased to 12. Meantime, the rule about painting vehicles yellow should be withdrawn, as we use the same vehicles for other rental service apart from school trips," said a driver.

They also added that since they have entered into an annual agreement with the parents to transport their children to school, it is very difficult to discontinue their services all of a sudden.

Meet on children's safety across DK

Meanwhile SP Bhushan G Borase stated that it is the joint responsibility of the school management, parents, vehicle drivers, police department, RTO and district administration to ensure that school children travel safely to schools. A meeting in this regard has been organised across the district, he added.