Though nearly all schools providing pick-and-drop facility, a large number of students of this industrial town prefer driving to school. This is evident by the rows of motorcycles and scooters parked outside a majority of the schools everyday.

Worse still, there seems to be no end to this monstrosity.

Parents, schools and the police keenly play the blame game while refusing to keep a check on the activities of the minors. While school and police authorities feel that parents should shoulder the responsibility for the menace, many parents say schools should come up with stricter rules.

“Between school and tuition classes, besides hobby classes, students have a hectic schedule. Compounded by peer pressure, we are left with no option but to heed to our children’s demands and buy vehicles for them,” says Reetinder Grewal, a housewife.

Mohinder Pal, Secretary, UPSC Jain Public School, says: “Driving to school is banned by us. But the parents do not cooperate in implementing the ban. A notice was circulated by us to all the parents following a meeting with the police wherein we banned scooters and motorcycles in the school.”  

Pal is not the only educationist complaining.

Talking to Newsline soon after the accident in which three boys of the school, riding a motorbike, were seriously injured after being hit by a truck, Pal said: “Gurmandeep Singh’s parents bought him a motorcycle knowing he is a minor. We have ten school buses ferrying children. But unless the parents cooperate, we cannot do anything. Children park vehicles outside the school and it is difficult to keep a check on all of them. It is up to the parents, they should not buy vehicles for their children.”

SSP Ludhiana Dr Sukhchain Singh Gill is a worried man. “When I was posted as SP, we had undertaken a special drive under which we would hold traffic awareness camps in schools. But then, accident like the one today has set us thinking. We will tighten checking and run another drive on traffic awareness.

Maybe we should adopt other methods, like the one used in Delhi wherein an underage driver, if caught, is taken to a traffic park and made to sit in a class for two hours.”