by Sheetal Sumith
We all have seen auto-rickshaws with overloaded school children hanging many tiffin bags outside. Simply try counting the bags next time when you see you will get the inside picture.
As per government order, only a maximum of six children up to the age of 14 years could be accommodated in an auto rickshaw.
I feel so sad when I think how busy are the parents who are permitting these drivers to just dump the children in that small three tier vehicle. Reminding you of the ones which don’t even have minimum safety features.
An incident in the Shri Basveshwar Circle shook us. The congested auto rickshaw with no safety back door, applied an excess accelerator after crossing the hump. A 7 year old child sitting behind, trusting the safety provided by his parents and his driver uncle, all of a sudden fell out of the auto injuring his knee. Unaware of what just happened behind was driver uncle trying to reach the school on time.
And afraid was the fallen child, after regaining his conscious on what just happened in a fraction of seconds, stood on his legs and was limping behind the auto afraid of not reaching the destination.
Furious, seeing this tragic scene, we just seeded up and blocked the auto and blasted him.
Am sure the parent of the child must be unaware of this incident, because I still see many overcrowded autos. Whom to blame? The busy parents, the safest auto driver uncle or the responsible RTO officials who permit all these and are waiting for an irreversible tragic incident to happen so as to implement the existing rules.
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