Govt deputed organization or What???
Dear Editor,
This article is the result of the advertisement that runs in your e paper promoting free writing and freedom of expression of thoughts and inviting articles from readers as contribution to your e paper.
My thoughts which I have penned down here under were inspired by your article dated 15th December 22 and one another article from an e paper dated 05th January, 2023.
The complainant Shahid Sharif represented a group of parents, presenting a memo to the Regional Transport Officer about harnessing the transport operators under certain guidelines viz tariff for the school buses (per km basis), lady conductor in the bus, police verification and fitness certificate of the transport staff etc.
Serving this kind of memo seems to be an attempt to hog limelight and to gain recognition and is a sheer display of lack of information and knowledge about the policy and procedures of the transport department of an organization or any transport vendors internal policies which binds its staff to certain yet mandatory rules and regulations. The complainant is surely alien to all these facts and did not consider certain facts and policies and procedures followed by the transport providers before presenting a baseless memo just for the sake of shining his own brass.
I am calling the complainant less informed and an attention seeker because the issue that he is addressing the callous and dangerous operational methods of the transport department, but being completely blind towards other private transport providers that ply their vehicles like autorickshaws, vans, mini buses ,paddled rickshaw and even private 2 wheeler riders (they have 2-3 students on their 2 wheeler which they ferry to the school each day for a particular monthly remuneration each month for each students parents).why isn’t the complainant so caring for such students availing the above means of private transport to commute to and from the school? Why hasn’t he raised this issue earlier when overcrowded private school vans and autorickshaws, mini vans, TATA winger are a common sight these days and since past many years? Why Specify only a particular schools name out of hundred others that are plying school buses ( his doing so suggests selfish reasons presumably that of a vendetta or some personal animosity with the named school)?What inspires or prompts this person to suddenly come out of his deep slumber and suddenly behave as a self-proclaimed selectively guardian angel (selectively, because the other possible transport hazards posed by these private school van operators goes unnoticed by him and he is least bothered for the same, and his memo to the RTO submitted by him suggests the same where his intent can quite clearly be understood)
I will bring certain glaring facts to the reader’s attention, that even The Respected RTO failed to notice or question
1: The so called RTE action committee and its so called Chairman are not a Government body ( or a Local Authority having administrative control over the school, nor a committee formed by the RTE Body or the Education Department or the Education Ministry, surprisingly his so called RTE Action Committee does sound bells of suspicion as being unregistered and probably fake (posing as a Government Body By using a similar name and thus misleading innocent people into believing that he is a representative or a chairman of RTE which comes under Ministry of Education/Department of Education).Additionally RTE Action committee is not a registered NPO or an NGO. It could be possible that Shahid Sharif runs this RTE action committee as a sperate unit dedicated exclusively to address RTE related issues, coming under his Edufirst Child and Women Foundation, an NPO (nonprofit organization), but in no manner it is a local Authority (Local authority is defined as Municipal Corporation, Municipal Council, Zilla Parishad, Nagpur Panchayat or Panchayat Samiti having administrative control over a school). In simple words a NPO or NGO doesn’t have any administrative control over the school.
The e- paper news on Shahid Sharif presenting a memo to the RTO shows Shahid wearing a Maharashtra Govt ID card around his neck??? If he is from the Government Department serving the Memo then why is he introducing himself as Chairman of RTE action committee and If he is representing himself as Chairman of RTE action committee then why is he wearing a Maharashtra Sarkar id around his neck??? And if he is representing the Govt Department, then which department has deputed him to address RTE issues???
2: The School in question (Edify) is not even registered in the list of schools falling into RTE quota.
3: Assuming and taking it as a hypothetical situation let’s say that RTE Action committee is genuine and registered entity, then by and large the core job of the committee should be to address the matters that concern issues related to RTE? Because neither the school is in the RTE list, nor the parents (co complainants) are availing RTE quota seats since they are general category parents. So WHY is the complainant citing RTE and its rules and heading a contingent as the Chairman of a so called RTE committee, when the matter is not pertaining to a RTE listed school and the parents are fall in general category? Why cite RTE rules and regulations where it is not applicable
and when the complainant parents’ child doesn’t even fall in the RTE student quota???
4: No school compels its students to compulsorily avail the school provided transport. The parents are at liberty to choose the mode of their child’s transport based on factors that suit their budget and convenience, and similarly they too are aware of the possible unforeseen hazards of commuting to and from school, be it due to school transport or by any other means they choose. I personally have seen that transport staff give their best to ensure a safe commute and ensure each students safety while the children are on board the vehicle or while they are alighting the vehicle. Despite all the due care and attention by the bus driver and the attendant unforeseen incidents happen which are not deliberately done and that’s why they are called accidents.
5: RTE nowhere in any of its GR of any kind has commented on school transport and the guidelines that needs to be followed. School commute by even a RTE quota student is not covered by RTE, and parents of such students Should not incur burden of school transportation, so RTE quota ensures that seats are allotted only for the schools that fall in a three km radius or less from the applicant’s home.
I am a parent too, and I always and will strongly support all agitations and efforts by people that safe guard the schools going students interests and wellbeing, but I am not a stupid parent either, who cannot read in between the lines and cannot figure out the ulterior and selfish motives behind such baseless agitations and Netagiri owning to some vested interests.
Unsafe school transport is definitely a grave matter of concern for any parent, but highlighting and naming only one issue, once instance or one particular institution doesn’t sound to be an act of genuine and uniform concern for all the students who commute to schools by some or the other means of transportation as raised by Shahid Sharif in his memo.
As a parent I want that whistle blowers should highlight genuine and prevailing issues, rather than picking issues that serves their personal interests. Serving the community should be the actual motive of a community worker or an activist. The intentions and efforts should be aimed to cover everyone’s benefit and issues raised should be in general and not a school or institution specific aimed at settling personal vendetta.
