Mysuru:  Protesting against the transport rules rolled out by the Traffic Police following  Supreme Court order, restricting the number of children that school autos and vans can ferry, school vehicle drivers, under the banner Mysuru City Private Schools Autos and Vans Union, began an indefinite stir today.

As a result of the stir, the drivers did not ferry the children to schools, which forced the parents to make alternative arrangements to send their children to school and back home.

A recent order issued by the City Traffic Police restricting the number of children that an auto or van can ferry has turned into a bone of contention between the drivers and the Police.

Following an Apex Court order, the Cops have put a cap on the number of children, according to which an auto can carry five children and a omni van six or seven children. 

The Union want the Traffic Police to put the cap at eight children for autos and 12 children for omni vans.

As part of the stir, over 400 auto drivers staged a demonstration in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office here this morning. The drivers presented a memorandum to the Tahsildar in the absence of the DC, seeking fulfilment of their demands.

Speaking to Star of Mysore, the Union Convenor K.H. Ananth Kumar said that thousands of children depend on autos and vans to travel to    their schools.

Pointing out that ferrying eight children in autos and 12 in vans only works out for them, he maintained that the Traffic Police rule was unscientific.

Noting that the Police rule has triggered outrage among the parents as well, as they fear that the restrictions on the number of children would send individual fares spiralling upwards.

Asserting that they were doing this business for over two decades and earning their livelihood, the Union Convenor  said that the new rule had made the life of over 3,000 school auto and van drivers miserable.

Stating that the Union submitted a memorandum to the DC this morning through the Tahsildar, he said that he hoped that the DC would convene a meeting later in the day to resolve the issue.

If the meeting is convened by this evening and a solution to the issue is indeed found, then the Union would call off its indefinite stir today itself and ask the drivers to ferry children from tomorrow as usual. 

However, in case the meeting is not possible today, then the Union will extend the stir to tomorrow as well and will continue till the DC gives a oral assurance on relaxing the rule, he said and added that the parents have been intimated about the indefinite stir well in advance.

Union office-bearers Suresha, Byraswamy, M. Srinivas, M. Ravi, Papanna and Vinutha and former Corporator Balasubramanya (Snake Shyam) led the protest.

Parents make alternative arrangements

Even as the school drivers launched indefinite stir, parents were seen making alternative arrangements to send their children to schools this morning.

Many parents were seen anxiously waiting for this impasse to end. Most schools of the city saw only a marginal dip in attendance of students, as parents who were informed of the stir well in advance, had made alternative arrangements to ferry their wards to schools and back home.