Indore: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Sunday announced that 2,514 school buses that are over 15 years old would be phased out, two days after four Delhi Public School students were killed in a collision between their school bus and a truck here.
Chouhan consoled family members of the deceased and visited the hospital where the injured students are undergoing treatment.
"We won't allow buses more than 15 years old to ply at any cost. A directive will be issued to take these buses off roads within three months," the chief minister told reporters.
He said that 2,514 out of the total 17,400 school buses, plying with the permission of the Transport Department, have been in operation for more than 15 years.
"These old buses will be taken off roads in a phased manner," he said.
DPS official among three held
Indore: A DPS School official was among three persons arrested by police in connection with the death of four students in a road accident here on January 5 and were booked for culpable homicide.
The ghastly mishap occurred at the Kanadiya bypass when the speeding school bus rammed into a truck on Friday, killing four students and the bus driver, Rahul Sisodia.
A faulty speed governor device installed on the bus is suspected to be the cause behind the accident.
"Police yesterday arrested Delhi Public School (DPS) Transport Officer Chaitanya Kumawat, Suvidha Auto Gas director Neeraj Agnihotri and its staffer Jalaj Meshram," Additional Superintendent of Police, Manoj Kumar Rai said on Sunday.
The trio have been booked under the section 304 (punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the IPC over the malfunction of the speed governor installed in the ill-fated bus. MPOST