THE Madras High Court has directed the Transport Commissioner to order within a month, installation of global positioning system (GPS) and closed-circuit television cameras (CCTV) in all school buses, including private, government and government-aided ones, in the State.

A division bench of Justices S Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad gave the directive when a PIL petition from advocate S Gopi Krishnan came up for hearing on Friday. Earlier, the government advocate produced a copy of communication dated July 22 of the School Education director to the School Education secretary and the Transport Commissioner, which cited an earlier order dated July 11 of the High Court on the issue.

This order had observed that the right to education also means the right to health and hygienic, fire safety, building safety and transport precautions in schools. It directed installation of GPS and CCTVs in buses owned or hired by schools for transporting children. In view of the direction and in order to ensure the safety and security of the children, instructions were issued to make compulsory installation of GPS and CCTVs.

The school managements shall ensure that CCTV camera and GPS are kept in good working condition and movement of the buses be closely monitored in a control room, to be provided in the school premises. The proceedings also stated that necessary instructions should be given to all private schools including CBSE and ICSE. Recording the same, the bench allowed the PIL petition.