Dehra Dun : With the district police feeling that schools, which are and were the mainstay of the capital city of Uttarakhand, are the main cause for the traffic chaos in the city specially in the mornings and afternoons when the the schools open and close for the day, he held a meeting with representatives of the schools and told them that they would have to take certain hard decisions to ease the traffic problem.
The meeting he held with the schools representatives, which was conveniently avoided by some of the important and better known schools in Dehra Dun, was a one way monologue with the SSP, Pushpak Jyoti, telling them what he had in mind and what he expected the schools to do to ease the traffic situation without listening to any objections or suggestions.
It is obvious that the large number of schools in the city, quite a few of which are on Rajpur Road and other main roads of the city, besides in other locations have a large number of parents and guardians waiting for their wards in four and two wheelers on the roads outside the school gates. This creates problems for the free flow of traffic causing long jams as the roads are blocked for quite some time.
The SSP made it clear that the schools will henceforth utilize their open spaces for the parents and guardians to wait with their vehicles inside the school premises when the schools close so that there is no crowd on the streets outside. The children will also have to sit in the vehicles inside the school premises and any two or four wheelers seen on the road outside the school awaiting children would be challaned.
He also asked the school representatives to sit down together and discuss different timings for the opening and closing of the schools, so that there is no rush of students and parents or guardians at any one given point of time on the roads. The schools will have to keep a difference of about half an hour in the opening and closing time so that the rush of one school can peter off by the time the other school opens or closes.
The SSP also made it clear to the school representatives that in case vehicles were found parked outside the school gates and parents or guardians waiting for the children, the schools would also be issued a notice and they would have to face the music. “After all the schools will also have to contribute their bit to help ease the traffic chaos in the city”, he said to the school representatives.
Even the army buses and trucks that come to collect the children of armymen will not be allowed to park on the roads waiting for the schools to close and the children sit in them. They too will have to be parked within the school premises and the army school in particular has been directed that it remove all the buses from the road.
Though some of the schools were conspicuous by their absence, the district police chief directed that they be called and talked to on the same lines as the directions are for all the schools to follow and not just one or two.
A journalist with over 40 years of experience, Jagdish Bhatt was Editor, Hill Post (Uttarakhand).
Jagdish had worked with India’s leading English dailies, which include Times of India, Indian Express, Pioneer and several other reputed publications. A highly acclaimed journalist, he was a recipient of many awards
Jagdish Bhatt, aged 72, breathed his last on 28th August 2021 at his Dehradun residence.
