Putting the life of school going kids at risk
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: July 05, 2014 -

In the absence of any proper road safety measure or serious effort on the part of the authority concerned to book over-speeding along the narrow and congested roads, road fatalities in Manipur may have become a daily occurrence that caused anyone to raise their eyebrows these days.

But the death of an 8-year old student and the injury caused to 24 others when the school van in which they were being brought home met with an accident near Kanimkhong along Thoubal Leishangthem MI Road on Thursday was indeed a very sad incident, which none would not even dare to wish their sworn enemies to experience it.

Hungry and tired after long hours of study at school, the young kids were returning home with lots of hope and plans for spending the remaining hours of the day under the watchful eyes and caring love of their parents.

But their hopes and plans were shattered and the hearts of their parents broken into pieces, especially that of the 8-year old Master Leishangthem Sushil, who lost his life when a loaded Tata truck coming in full speed from the opposite direction hit the school van while trying to cross each other.

The loss of lives of our near and dear ones in such unfortunate incident is something that could never be compensated in anyway.

So, we could only pray to the Almighty God to give enough strength to the bereaved parents to overcome the loss that could never be regained.

In this particular incident of road fatality, one may get the impression that it was the fault of the Tata truck driver, who was coming in full speed with no care for other vehicles coming from the opposite direction along the narrow and congested road and the van driver, who, of course, also sustained injuries, had nothing to blame.

This, however, does not mean that we are trying to exculpate the truck driver.

But the point is that this particular incident of road fatality has once again raised a big question on the manner of operating school van services and the safety and comfort of the young students being lifted from home and dropping from school.

Putting together more than 20 young kids in one Van says something surely on the sensibility of not just of the van driver, but also of all other authorities concerned.

Here, it is very unfortunate to learn that the Department or agency concerned of the State Government is yet to comply with the set of recommendations made by Manipur Commission for Protection of Child Rights (MCPCR) for putting in place a comprehensive School Van/Bus Transport policy in Manipur for ensuring the safety and comfort of the school going children in the aftermath of the incident in which 15 school going children felt unconscious inside a school van on May 23 last year.

It is this negligence on the part of the authorities concerned that has put our children to risk their lives even for going to school to study.