Citing failure to maintain safety standards, the fitness certificates of 36 vehicles of schools were temporarily cancelled in Madurai. The certificates were cancelled due to an inspection carried out by an inter-departmental committee of senior officials headed by Collector S Nagarajan.
The committee includes Superintendent of Police N Manivannan, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Arun Balagopalan, RTOs P Suresh, K Selvakumar, R Ponnurangam. They carried out the vehicle check at Armed Reserve Ground. According to officials from the regional transport office, the condition of tires, emergency exit, doors, slide step for children to board the vehicle, maintenance of driver cabin, proper racks for children to their keep bags, glitter stickers insides of the buses, first aid kit and fire extinguishers were checked.
RTOs Suresh and Selvakumar noted that though most of the vehicles in the district were properly maintaining the standard, some failed to concentrate on minor issues. "The fitness certificate of such vehicles has been denied temporarily. The same vehicles could again appear for clearance after rectifying the flaws," he said.
On the first day of the inspection, as many as 375 school vehicles have appeared for the clearance test. On the occassion, the personnel from Tamil Nadu Fire and Rescue Service have demonstrated the way to put off fire if fire caught inside the bus.
