ST Officials say, This is not real

Scores of students travel to their school, just 50 km away from Gandhinagar, like this every day; ST officials deny the kids’ travails

Yogesh Avasthi
Posted On Thursday, September 27, 2012 (http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/article/2/20120927201209270324072048af98e85/This-is-not-real.html)

The photograph above is not from a remote area of a poor region. As the vehicle registration plate shows, it is very much from the industrialised and economically developed Gujarat. The spot is just about 50 km from the capital city of Gandhinagar and near Bahucharaji, which ironically is set to become a major automobile manufacturing centre of the country. Scores of students from 53 villages along and off this route travel to their schools and colleges in this manner, over the buses, and hanging by it, eager not to miss out on education.
Children on the buses and hanging by them is a daily affair between 11 am and 12.30 pm, and 5 pm to 6.30 pm. Officials, however, claim this is not the reality. “It just can’t be,” was what R B Shah, the traffic manager at Mehsana state transport depot told Mirrorwhen contacted. According to N K Patel, who looks after the bus schedule, a total of 44 buses run on the route. “It is possible that buses sometimes get overcrowded due to some unforeseen reason. But we strictly do not allow anyone to climb on the buses. Yet if you say the condition prevails, then we will call for a report on the traffic on the route and see what can be done,” he said. District Education Office, too, is unaware of the situation.
It is not directly concerned with the transportation of the students, though. Said Mehsana District Education Officer A K Rathod, “None has approached me with this complaint (lack of transport facility) so far. If this is the condition and if people come to me with a complaint, I shall definitely take up the issue with the state transport corporation and try to solve the children’s problem.” Until then, ‘travel at your risk’ remains the official stance. The small town of Bahucharaji and the areas around it attracted attention after automobile market leader Maruti Suzuki decided to set up its plant there.
Real estate development activities have picked up in the area and the government is using Maruti’s arrival to tom-tom the state’s development saga. But for the residents there, transportation remains a nightmare. Incidentally, the road has a good amount of foliage. At many places, the trees are so dense that branches from either side get intertwined and make an arch over the road. The children travelling on the roof of the buses have to duck every now and then to avoid getting hit by the branches.
Buses normally originate from Mehsana or Bahucharaji in the morning and the evening. Mornings and evenings being peak hours, they are normally packed. These school and college students can’t afford to wait for a bus with some room and hence they board any bus that arrives. As there is no space inside the bus, they have no option but to climb over them or hang at the entrance or by the stair in the rear to reach their destination — school, college or home. “We try to dissuade these students from doing so, but neither they have any option nor can we forcibly make them alight from the bus,” said Mahesh Solanki, a conductor in one of the buses plying on the route.
Pratik Chaudhary, a class VIII student, expressed his helplessness: “We have no option but to hang by the bus or to climb on it if we have to reach our school in time. Many a time we get hurt, but there is nothing that we can do. Elders and senior students have spoken to our teachers and ST depot manager, but there has been no change in the condition.” Said Manibhai Panchal, principal of G M Patel High School at Nandasa village, the condition has been like this for quite some time.
While school and college students from the places from where the buses originate get to sit or even stand, children especially from villages along the route and interiors have to face a lot of hardships. “Sometimes they don’t get place even to hang by the buses or climb on it. They are late to school. We understand their predicament, so we allow them in even if they are late,” he added. “There are talks of development in the air thanks to the arrival of Maruti. But right now, it is just that — talks. Villagers still lack basic facilities. Sadly, incidents like students falling down or getting injured have become routine and the authorities see them just like that,” said Kanjibhai Desai, a local political worker.